Relying on GoTo (And A Nice Double In Equ)

[cloudsweeper]

Around 5.00pm (Friday) I set up the 8SE on GoTo, aligning on Jupiter in the south.

Targets: doubles in Equuleus.

Problem: laptop packed up, no Stellarium.

Now Lambda Equ should be easy to recognise (matched 7th mag, 3.0"), so I put the SAO number in the handset anyway, and the 'scope slewed off northwards and westwards of Jupiter, getting to two stars in a sparse field.  The more central one was the target, revealed on going from x48 to x102 - still close, but  a clear split, closely matched (as expected), with a 1 o'clock orientation.  

I could have done more, perhaps aided by an atlas, but cloud stopped play anyway.

Still, GoTo proved its worth when "working blind" (no Stellarium for confirmation) from just a planetary alignment (and a target not all that distant from the planet).

Lambda / 2 Equ incidentally is said to be a binary in Haas, is not listed in the Cambridge Atlas, and is actually a double of uncertain status.  Nice to split nonetheless.

Doug.