Fineshade woods. A nearly full moon. Some failed doubles and some views North

[josefk]

I knew the sky wouldn't be dark last night but i was keen to get out nevertheless. Fineshade woods (a forestry commission site in Northamptonshire) is a site about 10 or 15 minutes from my house so i thought i would give it a dry run. The moon was SO bright i still don't know if its a darkish site or not. Online checking suggests it should be Bortle 4. The pay & display machines seem to be left on all night so there is some ground level light pollution. I like it because you can observe from the side of the car and that suits me a lot.

Being a bright moon in the S and SE i had the vague intention of viewing between NW and NE. A little cloud in the first few degrees above the horizon also pushed me up a bit.

Success: M35, M36, M37, M38. These were all lovely even though the sky wasn't properly dark. M37 was especially nice. I will definitely pick these out again on a much darker night.

2nd success: M81 and M82. I actually looked at M81 a couple of weekends ago but after the fact had a nagging doubt wether i'd actually looked at M81 or M82. Last night i watched both for a while to be sure and took note of distinct E/W orientation (M82) versus a more diffuse and much less striking M81. No doubt about seeing them but not striking against the non dark sky and moonshine on the ground around me and scope parts in my peripheral vision.

3rd success: Looking at Vega, the Double Double and Zeta1 Lyrae in binoculars. What a lovely arrangement. 

Failures: Double star splitting. Couldn't split either of the Double Double, nor Vega, Sirius, Arcturus, or Capella. Not sure if it was a seeing, kit or skill issue. Maybe all three. Sirius i knew to be hard but expected one of the others at least.

Cheers Joe

BTW: Fineshade looks like a good option at least on the ground:

Edited April 16, 2022 by josefk
spelling

[josefk]

end of the night.heic

 

Edited April 16, 2022 by josefk
pic uploaded

[Nik271]

Is that a 6 inch Cassegrain? You should be able to split the Double Double using about x120 magnification in most conditions.

Don't be disappointed about the other doubles you tried - these are very hard or impossible. Forget Capella and Arcturus, these are beyond amateur equipment (and Arcturus has only one observation from 2003 which has not been repeated). Vega has sevaral dim visual companions. The only one feasible with your scope is mag 9.5 about 80'' away, not easy in bright full Moon. Also it's a bit late for Sirius, by 9pm when it starts to get properly dark Sirius is too low in the west.

[josefk]

2 hours ago, Nik271 said:

Is that a 6 inch Cassegrain? You should be able to split the Double Double using about x120 magnification in most conditions.

Don't be disappointed about the other doubles you tried - these are very hard or impossible. Forget Capella and Arcturus, these are beyond amateur equipment (and Arcturus has only one observation from 2003 which has not been repeated). Vega has sevaral dim visual companions. The only one feasible with your scope is mag 9.5 about 80'' away, not easy in bright full Moon. Also it's a bit late for Sirius, by 9pm when it starts to get properly dark Sirius is too low in the west.

Hah. You've made my day! Obviously i didn't do my homework first :-). 

i'll have another go at the Double Double at that mag. I have the 8" GSO/StellaLyra Cassegrain and i'm loving it so far.

Cheers

[cloudsweeper]

20 hours ago, josefk said:

Hah. You've made my day! Obviously i didn't do my homework first :-). 

i'll have another go at the Double Double at that mag. I have the 8" GSO/StellaLyra Cassegrain and i'm loving it so far.

Cheers

Yes, Nik is right - just because a star is described as a double - or even features in a doubles atlas - doesn't mean it can be visually split.  Wide doubles can be very pleasing to view with not a lot of effort, but getting down to say 1" of separation becomes much more challenging depending on the seeing and the properties of the star(s).  I've cracked a couple in the 0.9 - 1.0" region, and keep trying to improve!

Doug.