Some Hercules Doubles

[cloudsweeper]

Wednesday 19th July - mild, clear - set up the 8" SCT with Focal Reducer and GoTo.

I watched the erratic flight of a couple of bats before the first star appeared.  Vega.  Aligned the 'scope on that.

95 Her - 4th and 5th magnitudes, 6.5 arcsec separation - going from x36 to x73 I got the split - very good match, very close, clear split - classic "pair of eyes/headlights", a lovely sight.  A few fainter stars nearby.

Sigma 2085 - 7th and 9th mags, 6.3 arcsec - same x73 as before, and again, a very close but clear split.  Much fainter secondary at 10 o'clock.  Sparse field, although by then I was viewing through thin cloud or gaps in cloud.

Sigma 2232 - 6th and 8th mags, and again a separation between 6 and 7 arcsec.  Saw it briefly at the starting mag of x36 (handy 2.03deg TFOV), then the clouds blotted everything out before I could go to x73 and crack it.

First time under the stars for several weeks, very pleasing, although I had hoped for longer than one hour!

Doug.

Edited July 20, 2023 by cloudsweeper

[wookie1965]

Brilliant Doug I myself cannot view from home now because of a new Led lamp however the man from the council came out he worked in Cumbria gaining awards for dark skies, he has said even if he has to make something himself he is going to stop the light from my view so I can get back out cannot ask for anything better than that.

Paul 

[cloudsweeper]

3 hours ago, wookie1965 said:

Brilliant Doug I myself cannot view from home now because of a new Led lamp however the man from the council came out he worked in Cumbria gaining awards for dark skies, he has said even if he has to make something himself he is going to stop the light from my view so I can get back out cannot ask for anything better than that.

Paul 

Good result Paul.  Sometimes you can feel things are stacked against you - another reason I enjoyed last night is that the new neighbours were away so there was no massive glare from their curtainless window.  Eight months of it so far!

Doug.

[Richard N]

1 hour ago, cloudsweeper said:

massive glare from their curtainless window

It's only when you do astronomy that you notice how some fancy houses have rubbish curtains (if they have any at all).

[Mr Spock]

I’ve had my Hercules chart out for a couple of weeks. Perhaps if someone could move the clouds to one side… 😜 

[The60mmKid]

Thanks for the report! Have you tried Zet Her with your 8" scope? That's one of my favorite challenging (for medium-sized scopes) pairs.

[cloudsweeper]

2 hours ago, Mr Spock said:

Perhaps if someone could move the clouds to one side… 😜 

Tell me about it.  I've even thought about changing my username!

Doug.

[cloudsweeper]

1 hour ago, The60mmKid said:

Thanks for the report! Have you tried Zet Her with your 8" scope? That's one of my favorite challenging (for medium-sized scopes) pairs.

Not cracked that one yet - tricky, on account of the very bright primary.  Needs a lot of magnification, so definitely needs aperture!

Doug.

[bosun21]

2 hours ago, The60mmKid said:

Thanks for the report! Have you tried Zet Her with your 8" scope? That's one of my favorite challenging (for medium-sized scopes) pairs.

Thanks, now on my to do list.

[John]

51 minutes ago, cloudsweeper said:

Not cracked that one yet - tricky, on account of the very bright primary.  Needs a lot of magnification, so definitely needs aperture!

Doug.

I got Zeta Herc first a few years back with my ED120. Since then I've regularly observed it and it now seems a little easier to do. If the seeing is halfway decent my 100mm will split it at 225x and upwards.

The uneven brightness of the component stars does add a lot to the difficulty I agree. 

Nice report of your session 🙂

[Stu]

2 hours ago, John said:

I got Zeta Herc first a few years back with my ED120. Since then I've regularly observed it and it now seems a little easier to do. If the seeing is halfway decent my 100mm will split it at 225x and upwards.

The uneven brightness of the component stars does add a lot to the difficulty I agree. 

Nice report of your session 🙂

It’s definitely one that gets easier with experience. I failed for years, but finally got it in my Mewlon 210, then the 8” f8. After knowing what to look for, it was then doable in the Heritage 150p and finally both Vixen FL102S and FC100DC. Aperture certainly helps though, the Heritage gives better views than the Fluorite Floosies 🤪🤣