Doubles in Boötes plus Epsilon Lyra

[AlcorAlly]

Sharing a few sketches and notes from last night's doubles session. All with 4 inch f9 refractor and 4mm eyepiece. 

I'm struggling with balancing red light intensity when sketching. Too bright and I can't see the stars in the eyepiece. Too dim and I can't see what I'm sketching. So I keep turning the light on and off. Is there a better way? Tips appreciated  

 

 

Edited April 30 by AlcorAlly
Typo

[glafnazur]

Great sketches 

[josefk]

Nice sketches and notes @AlcorAlly Izar particulary.

I also struggle with "too much" red light sometimes and i do turn it on and off and i do have a two stage dimmer on my red light. Have you tried having it behind/under something so it is shadowed when your eye is at the EP but is illuminating your sketch pad when you look up/away to sketch?

If i hang a red light head torch from the focuser of my scope pointing down it sort of achieves this effect...Not perfectly - i could still do with something dimmer for the very best dark adaptation...

[SwiMatt]

Awesome work @AlcorAlly, your doubles' sketches are really nice to look at! 

For the red light, I use a small one that I can hold in my left hand while sketching, by closing the hand over it I can control how dim it is on the paper; when I need the left hand I either leave it down on the pad, or hold it in my palm (it's small enough that almost no light escape the fist) while using the fingers to track on the mount. It's not a super ideal setup, but it works. Holding it at all time can be annoying at first but I got used pretty fast. 

[LondonNeil]

Beautiful sketches and notes!  I feel inspired to go Hunt for them! 

[AlcorAlly]

Good tips, thank you @josefk @SwiMatt

[John]

Really nice sketches - they capture the look of these binary stars through a quality refractor perfectly !

 

[Lurcher]

Great sketches. I like the way you've produced them.

I don't know if it would work for you, but I use a small reading light clipped to the side of my pad, and which I've painted with red glass paint so that it produces a red light.

I can hold the pad down by my side when viewing so there's no glare near the eyepiece.

[JeremyS]

Very nice @AlcorAlly. I like the way you depict the Airy discs and diffraction rings. Very realistic.

[AlcorAlly]

8 hours ago, Lurcher said:

I use a small reading light clipped to the side of my pad, and which I've painted with red glass paint so that it produces a red light.

Thank you, I haven’t tried a reading light before, opens up many more options than an astronomy torch.

[Pete Presland]

Very well sketched, some of the red light torches are way too bright even on the dimmest setting. 

Epsilon Lyra is such a pleasing object to find and view !

[Armand Popa]

Wow what cool sketches @AlcorAlly. it's as nice to look at your sketches as looking at the respective doubles in the sky. Congrats