Between clouds and fog - Saturn, open clusters and doubles

[josefk]

It was a session between clouds and fog last night. It was cloudy till 22:30 or so and then haze ran in about 01:30 . The haze turned into a full on fog bank by 01:45. Nevertheless in the middle of this wet sandwich was fabulous seeing. At steep angles the seeing was rock steady!

The location was my normal dark sky sight in Northamptonshire. Dark sky being highly relative last night with the full moon :-(.

My basic plan was a mix of doubles in Lyra (chart 11 in the Cambridge Double Star Atlas) and making a start on Steve O'Meara's Herschel targets for September with a look across at Saturn and Jupiter in between. Mission (other than Jupiter) more or less accomplished. 

First up Saturn - possibly the best i've seen it this year. I used a mixture of binoviewers at 152x and mono eyepieces at 203x and 305x. There was some glare (it was never "etched") but i don't think I've seen so much detail on the planet so far this season. There was a very clear sense of the rings going behind and in front of the planet and clear shadow of the upper (southern) ring (in my scope view) above the ring on the face of the planet. i think i may have even seen colour in the shade and mild bands on the planet face. Bizarrely even though this was great i wasn't sure i saw the Cassini Division last night. I think i may have but it was at the intermittent level where it could have also been imagination. Titan, Rhea and Dione to the east. There was too much glare for me to see other moons (they were all pretty tight in last night according to Sky Safari).

Though Saturn was great; Jupiter at higher altitude was horrible for me - a visibly boiling edge. i could see the NEB/SEB but little else and I didn't hang about.

I more or less turned my back on the southern view then (and turned my back on the moon) and started looking for targets i had earmarked in Cygnus and Lyra (with a small detour to Cassiopeia).

Collinder 33, Collinder 34, and NGC 1848 in Cassiopeia were all observed. I spent nearly 30 mins trying to pattern match C33 and C34 but gave up in the end. I'm not sure i was seeing all the stars i think i should see there so probably needs a darker night and especially darker for my eye around the eyepiece.

Around in Cygnus, NGC 6866 and NGC 6910 were new to me. These are Herschels in the September target list. Both very pretty. NGC 6910 has a very hot looking needle like star in the middle of the array. Near here was a Planetary not on my list for the night but it was close so i took a look - NGC 7027 (PK 084-03.1). It was clear and obvious as a very slightly elongated "star" that wouldn't come to focus (at 200x and 300x) even though everything else around it was sharp. It was a plain grey but no details (it's tiny). On a darker night apparently this one may have some blue to it so i will come back.

Finally i had a few doubles on my list (actually i had a lot but i only saw a few). I have put Chart 11 in the Cambridge Double Star Atlas into Sky Safari as an observation list so started to work (cheat) through it.

For 61 Cygni and 56 Cygni the seeing was unreal. Rock steady. This is the first time i've had 300x to use in this scope and the diffraction rings were perfect.  These are not difficult doubles though the companion to 56 Cygni is faint and i could only "easily" see it at 300x. At 200x knowing exactly where to look i could make it out but at 140x it got a bit lost.

As an experiment because the night was so clear and steady i had a look at Albireo at high mag (300x) and really didn't like it. The diffraction rings though perfect "diluted" the colour that is so lovely in this pair. I also went across to the double double - this is my benchmark or calibration double pair. I have never seen them split in such a perfect text book way - car headlights and figure of eight diffraction rings with one ring in the gap for each pair. E2 sharper and more defined than E1.

Next up in Lyra was Sheliak. This was a perfect view. Really perfect but i'm not exactly sure which star in the four is "F" and i didn't draw anything. if Aa1/aa2, Ab, B and F are the "four" stars that are tightly grouped and other than Aa1/Aa2 of even magnitude (ish) then i saw the group.

Finally (for this post) i observed HD 172865 and companion, HD 174022 and companion, and HD 179709 and companion - all in Lyra. None of these are difficult vis a vis separation and mag differences. These are the ones i saw but there a few misses in this chart 11 list that i haven't kept a record of (it was too wet for paper note taking).

The haze had come in by now and as i packed up this haze turned to fog in a matter of minutes. 

My eyepieces had been getting foggy for the last half hour but by the time i was packed away everything was running with water. 

Thanks to Clear Outside for the session. If i'd have checked meteoblue i would have stayed at home!

Thanks for reading. Cheers

 

[josefk]

BTW. The homemade dew shield worked a treat - it is blackened on the inside!