A few doubles in the dew

[josefk]

With the moon nearly full and darkness really not going to be dark at all and anyway very short i thought i  would go out last night to build some experience on doubles. I started by forgetting to take my observing plan A and Plan B lists (1st lesson of the evening) so i had to make it up as i went along primarily using the observing list "111 objects to view under light polluted skies" in Sky Safari. 

Location was again Fineshade Woods just outside of Stamford. Bortle4 in theory. Atmosphere was quite damp (and dew point quite high) so it was pretty wet by the end. Observing 22:30 till 03:30. Dawn came very fast and there was a cuckoo calling before 04:00. Nice.

Gear: 8" GSO/StellaLyra Classical Cassegrain, 80x/60' and 140x/30' EPs, Nexus DSC & Sky Safari, and 15x56 tripod mounted binoculars.

Double Double: start of the session sky check and end of the session sky check. Early evening could split C&D but not A&B. Later could split both pairs but A&B remained tricky.

M5 (Globular Cluster). Grey candy floss with direct vision but would resolve with averted vision. This was at about 30 degrees altitude and with the treelike strongly silhouetted below it so not dark. Nicely brought me to 5 Serpentis which was really nice double with an easily separated (11") but very dim companion.

Mizar and Alcor. Framed together and lovely! watched for quite a while and sketched. Mizar A and B also easily split so i'm not sure what to make of the 0.8" separation that i think it has  at 14.4".

Double Cluster. Not a black sky so not spectacular but very pretty nonetheless. My widest TFOV is 1.0 degree so also used the binoculars here and sketched the major stars in both star diagonal and binocular viewpoints so a bit brain bending capturing the relative patterns of the two clusters. NGC 884 on the showing was notably more open (looser) than NGC 889.

Just to west of NGC 889 i had a look at what in think is another double star - V551 Persei and HD 13841. These are a 3' split and form a nice long horizontal parallelogram with two bright stars in NGC 869. I split these in the bins too and in fact they helped me secure the double cluster in the bino view.

Iota Cassiopeiae. A very pleasing double star (triple actually but the 3rd star is unresolvable). Separation of A and B was very clear but i had a brain bending moment trying to estimate the distance. i couldn't visually divide my EP FOV and do the math for ". it was the time of night not maths numptiness. Got it in the end and the estimation matches the catalogue. The companion here is a very dim brown one.

12 Lyncis. Easy split A from C at 9.7" but couldn't split A from B at 1.9". I feel i need a higher mag than 140x for doubles around 2".

Algieba. Easy split at 4.8". Felt i may have been beginning to dew up but a red light check down the scope was in the negative so maybe the atmosphere was particularly damp at this point (01:30 am). 

54 Leonis. Another easy split at 6.6" and with a hint of blue in the companion i thought. 

Alula Australis. This was a bit of a tie fighter for a good few drifts across the EP. Closed my pupil up on the moon for a few seconds in the end and then it split (relatively) comfortably. This is at 2.4" and at 140x.

24 Coma Berenices. Lovely separation at 20" and a pale silver lemon colour in the primary and cool with a very slight hint of blue in the companion.

Porrima. Clear split but a strong dose of atmospheric red and blue shimmer here.

M13 and M92. would be rude not to stop by while passing. Both faint but delicately resolving like dew covered cobwebs. Quite aesthetic considering how low the contrast was.

M57. Well flipping heck!. This was completely new to me and will stay with me like my first views of Jupiter and Saturn. What a thing. Lingered here for 30mins or so. Very clear, amazingly so but i think there will be more to come on darker nights. A hint of a brighter perimeter to the outer part of the ring versus the inner part of the ring.

Albireo. An easy split at 35". slight hint of lemon in the primary and blue in the companion.

Zeta1 Lyrae. Last night i marked this as an easy split (and the separation is 22") but this morning as i check my notes then i know i didn't split this at all. The companion is way to dim at 15.8!!! i clearly saw something else at roughly 0.5'.

NGC 6838. Globular Cluster. Resolved in that there were stars rather than glowing nebulosity but this was very dim. Felt very old and far away which i suppose it is.

Collinder 399. The Coathanger. This didn't really do it for me last night. Had to scroll around with a 1 degree FOV to pick up the outliers.

NGC 6885. Cocked this up a bit by not planning what i should see and therefore what i should look for. Will come back to differentiate it from the overlapping NGC 6882.

And thats it 03:30. Day was breaking in the East. By the time i had had slowly packed up the dawn chorus was starting and the treeline to the East was strongly silhouetted against a very bright sky.

Great session and a perfect end to the week/start of the weekend.

Good weekends all.

Joe

Edited May 18, 2022 by josefk
fact correction

[josefk]

looking west to the setting moon at 03:40 ish...

[josefk]

and another...

[Paz]

Great report, that's a lot of targets and persistence to keep going until 3.30 - you will almost never see me out that late. Sky Safari has a built in doubles list you can bring up called "Best Double Stars", but I often use the Cambridge Double Star Atlas to find doubles targets and then I tag them in a custom list in Sky Safari.

[josefk]

The time flew by @Paz  going slowly minute by minute but then two or three hours had raced by. I am looking forward to when a five hour session finishes before midnight though!  Cheers.