Observing Report: New Years Day.

[lunator]

Observing report 01/01/10

Scope OMC 250, Eyepieces SWAN 20mm, 18/12.5/9mm Orthoscopic.

I managed to get out fro 3 hours last nigth before the clouds and rain rolled in. My aim was to observe doubles in Lynx. The waning Moon was a waning gibous and was very bright. There was a high mist which was making the Moon glow very extensive. Looking for faint doubles was not going to be possible.

The targets were chosen from the CDSA. They were all bright and easy to find.

I was particularily impressed with STF946/948 grouping. At low mags it looks like a double/double but if you increase the magnification the STF948 pair is a triple. With a wide angle eyepiece and around x150 mag you might be able to get to see them as a double/triple. This is one to look out for.

Lynx Doubles

Lynx STTA 72A-C orange/orange

A very wide pair suitable for binos & small scopes. Even magnitude both stars had an orange tint.

Mag x112 Sep:134 Mag1:7.6 Mag2:7.6 Co-ords:06 26 59 40

5 Lynx S 514A-C orange/blue

A wide pair with a pale yellow primary and a pale blue secondary.

Mag x112 Sep:95.8 Mag1:5.4 Mag2:7.9 Co-ords:06 27 58 25

Lynx STF936 yellow/blue

A very tight pair of yellow & blue. A few faint stars in the field

Mag x180 Sep:1.3 Mag1:7.5 Mag2:9 Co-ords:06 40 58 06

Lynx STF946 yellow/blue

A tight pair at x112, neat colour contrast. Shares field with STF948 a good double double.

Mag x112 Sep:4.1 Mag1:7.3 Mag2:9.1 Co-ords:06 45 59 27

Lyx 12 Lynx STF948AC white/blue

The primary is a bright white and the tertiary a pale blue neat view with STF946

Mag x112 Sep:8.7 Mag1:5.4 Mag2:7.1 Co-ords:06 46 59 27

12 Lynx STF948AB white/white

A tight pair of white stars of fairly even magnitude. At higher magnification the c component looks greenish, an excellent sight.

Mag x180 Sep:1.8 Mag1:5.4 Mag:6 Co-ords:06 46 59 27

Lynx STF 958 white/white

A neat pair of white stars. Very evenly matched.

Mag x112 Sep:4.6 Mag1:6.3 Mag:6.3 Co-ords:06 48 55 42

Lynx STF1009 white/white

A neat pair of white stars. Close at x112. Very similar magnitudes with the primary being only slightly brighter makes a neat triangle asterism with a more distant fainter companion.

Mag x112 Sep:4.3 Mag1:6.8 Mag2:7 Co-ords:07 06 52 46

Lynx STF1033 white/white/blue

A very tight pair just split occasionally at x180. The third star is more distant and pale blue.

Mag x180 Sep:1.5 Mag1:7.8 Mag2:8.4 Co-ords:07 15 52 33

Lynx STF1065 white/white

A fairly wide pair of stars. Even magnitude. Both stars appeared off-white.

Mag x112 Sep:15 Mag1:7.5 Mag2:7.7 Co-ords:07 22 50 09

19 Lynx STF1062 white/white/blue

A neat triple. Primary and secondary are white. The tertiary is blueish. Bright stars to the East.

Mag x112 Sep:15 Mag:5.8 Mag:6.7 Co-ords:07 23 55 17

Lynx STTA 84 orange/orange

A wide pair of evenly matched stars. Both appeared white with an orange tint. Good small scope target.

Mag x112 Sep:113.3 Mag1:7.7 Mag2:7.7 Co-ords:07 25 56 33

24 Lynx HJ2405 yellow/blue

A wide uneven pair. A yellow white primary and a pale blue secondary. Secondary very faint.

Mag x112 Sep:55 Mag1:5 Mag2:11.2 Co-ords:07 43 58 43

Taurus

Taurus S 437AB-C orange/blue

A wide colour contrast pair of orange and blue. Right in the heart of M45

Mag x112 Sep:39.4 Mag1:8.1 Mag2:7.7 Co-ords:03 47 24 13

Taurus STF559 white/white

A tight pair of white stars just split at x125. In between alpha & epsilon Tau (Hyades)

Mag x125 Sep:3 Mag1:7 Mag2:7 Co-ords:04 33 18 01

Taurus H 4 44/AG68 yellow/blue

A wide uneven pair of a yellow primary and a pale blue secondary.

Mag x112 Sep::16.8 Mag1:6.8 Mag2:9.9 Co-ords:03 32 11 33

Cheers

Ian

[Doc]

Very impressive Ian and will look out for the STF946/948 grouping of stars.

[Rob]

Great report there Ian. It seems the scope is performing very well for you

Rob

[lunator]

Cheers Doc

Rob, the scope woks well, it needs to be fettled about once a month just to keep it spot on.

Cheers

Ian

[Daventryman]

I used to really enjoy observing double stars. My big mistake was to move on to measuring them (positional angle and separation) via CCD images - looking back it was just way too time consuming. An even bigger mistake was trying to discover new binary systems (rather than just line-of-sight doubles). It would be hard to imagine a less user friendly branch of the hobby!

As they say, quite correctly, what doesn't kill us makes us stronger. I've now gone full circle and have returned to eyeballing them just for pleasure.