Woah what a night...

[KingOfColly]

With not a cloud in the sky I stuck my dob out to cool at about 11pm and had a flick through my new book Turn Left at Orion while I waited. I decided to concentrate on the Lyra system tonight the main reason being to try and find the Ring nebula M57.

I put my new unbranded 38mm SWA (eBay) in the focusser and pointed straight up, I have never seen so many stars at once it was hypnotising! I don't know much about eyepieces but I was impressed at how crisp the stars were throughout the 70 degree field of view considering it was an unbranded piece.

I found Vega and underneath it the tall parallelogram shape made of 4 bright stars. According to my book M57 lies halfway between the two bottom stars of this shape. Peering through my finder I nudged my dob downwards from Vega and landed on it straight away. I swapped the 38mm for the 12mm Pentax and sat there for the next hour in silence with tingles going up and down my spine - the longer I looked the more detail would slowly appear

When I was finally able to pull myself away from the eyepiece I moved my scope up and slightly to the left to find what I thought was the Double-double. I could see a pair of double stars as per my book but in my scope both doubles had the same angle of rotation whereas the book shows the rotations to be at 90 degrees to one another. Is this because the stars have rotated since the book was written or I was looking at another pair of doubles? Any advice would be appreciated

At about 12:45 I stood up to start packing things away when I noticed a very bright dot to the east, could it be? I swung the scope around and watched as Jupiter slowly floated through my field of view trailing 4 moons along with it! This is the FIRST time I have seen Jupiter!!! I quickly stuck my Televue 2x barlow on the end of the 12mm and screwed my moon filter on the end of that, I could actually see bands of gas on the surface OMG!!

I'm skint right now but I really want one of those 3-6mm nagler zooms after tonight...lol...

[Talitha]

Well done, and congratulations on seeing M57 and Jupiter! No, the Double-Double stars haven't rotated, they should look like my attached image. Did you see all 4 stars?

[John]

Great report !

M57 is quite mesmerising and you are quite right, the longer you look, the more detail you see. This applies to many aspects of observing - especially seeing subtle detail on planets I've found.

You have great scope and have only just started to scratch the surface of whats out there to see - it's worth spending time on Jupiter - there is detail in those gas cloud belts which your scope can pull out if you give it time.

Lets hope for some more clear nights !

[KingOfColly]

What I saw was very similar to your image Carol only imagine both pairs looking like Epsilon 1. Ill try and find them on Stellarium, maybe I have discovered some new stars hehe

Edit: Could it have been HIP 94075/94076 and 94039/94043? They have the same rotation as each other.

[Talitha]

Very possible. You were quite a way off, but it's cool that you found another double double.

I've indicated HIP 94075/94076 and 94039/94043 in red, and the Double-Double in yellow.

HIP 94039/94043 is STF 2470

HIP 94075/94076 is STF 2474

I'm not sure if the two doubles have a combined designation.

Lovely find!

[KingOfColly]

Thanks very much for the pic, it makes much more sense now! Turn Left at Orion is explaining the location of two different double doubles where I assumed it was the same one! I did kind of wonder why I didn't get one of the pictures in the book lol. First the book explains the location of Epsilon Lyrae, then the one I must have seen which is designated Double-Double's Double - what an imaginative name

I must say it does get confusing sometimes when you're looking at everything upside down.

[Talitha]

You're more than welcome, glad to be of help.

[KingOfColly]

Thanks Carol and John for your kind and helpful words

Do you have any advice on what filters make for best viewing of Jupiter? I have a Revelation polarising filter at the moment but even with it I was caught in the glare. I was thinking of getting this at the highest density and even stacking it with my current filter: -

Moon & Neutral Density Filters - Baader Neutral Density Moon filters

Edit: Managed to find Epsilon Lyrae just now! The leftmost double was the hardest to split requiring the use of the 2x barlow on my 12mm to resolve it (200x magnification)

[Talitha]

No idea on the filter (don't have one), but congrats on the Double Double!

There's a bigger difference in the magnitudes of the northernmost pair, which is why they're harder.

Well done!

[DarkerSky]

Brilliant report! Just reading that makes me wish I was out under the stars right now. I'll never forget the first time I saw M57. It was with a 6" reflector and I think I did pretty much the same as you - I was just mesmerized by it, and the more I looked the more I could see

Those are the sorts of nights that stay with you