Monoceros and an unusual double star

[Marvin Jenkins]

Unexpectedly clear tonight with incredible stillness but countered by light glow from fog starting to build. 
So I had it great but the conditions were going against me. I don’t mind as anything without cloud and snow is a joy.

This is an odd one. I opened an Astro book yesterday and there was a bookmark in the section Monoceros. I probably left it there as a reminder to AP the Rosette. I looked at the constellation and thought why not give it a go visual?

Right next to Orion, easy peasy. Not so! When the books say a faint constellation they are not joking. Under B3 skies the whole thing looks like a really dim bit of the milky way.

Monoceros is the proud owner of M50 but I decided to go big game hunting. Plaskett’s Star.

I stumbled upon this star in Burnhams which has the usual amazing description with all the trimmings. So I decided to give it a go with my five inch newt on an AZ5 with decent Plossl EPs. 
No high end kit. No power. No goto or computers. 
Beginners heads up. A decent star atlas. Something else to cross reference it to and plenty of dark adaptation.

Monoceros is a visual nightmare. There are so few stand out stars that the whole thing melts into the background stars. Navigation is so hard. At first I was at despair but then I thought, use your time and work methodically. 
Go back to a known starting point and hop again. It took me at least ten minutes to work out where 13 Mon was for sure.

From 13 mon there is a little triangle of stars that point in the correct direction. As usual every thing is the same magnitude even though the charts say otherwise. Another 30 minutes of back and forth an there are the three stars, the right one is Plasketts.

It just looks like a star, but it is different to the others in the fov. It is pin point sharp. Very white and intense. All the other stars look like background points of light.

To end it all I star hopped to M50, rude not to. I will leave you all to look into Plasketts Star. But I will end this by saying to all astronomers, the joy of a grab and a go can re energise your love of astronomy. 

Marvin

[Epick Crom]

Nice report Marvin👍

You have pipped my interest with Plasketts star, I have never heard of it before. Research time! 

Yeah Monoceros is a faint constellation but it contains so many riches! I love cruising it's complex star fields. Thanks for posting!

Joe

[Marvin Jenkins]

The pleasure is all mine. I have never really delved into Mono before except M50. 
Plasketts is a really interesting binary for sure.

Marv