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Observing report 01 01 07

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lunator

lunator

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Here is the 1st report of the year.

The evening did not look too promising as it was raining quite heavliy at 6.30pm. Fortunatly by 7.30 it had stopped so I thought I would risk ir and put the scope out too cool. I left the cap on and I was glad I did as the wind was still blowing water off the trees.

I started observing at 8.30. My plan was too sketch and measure some doubles and to investigate a couple of stars on the neglected double star list. It would be pointleses looking for very faint pairs as a near full moon was neve going to let me get fully dark adapted.

The wind was quite gusty and the seeing was not great too begin with although all the rain meant transparancy was good.

I put the 25mm Ortho in and swung the scope to gamma aries (STF180) The finder was well aligned the image was nice & clean :)

My main targets were 3 bright doubles in Cetus.

The 1st was Nu Psc (STF281) one of the Stars of the Circlet.

The primary is a Golden Yellow colour with a blue/greay companion. They wer split easily in the 12.5mm Ortho (x96) I took 3 measurements and came to a figure of 78.7 degrees PA & 6.9" separation. (the WDS has 79 degress & 7.9") The primary has a spectral class of G3III so the colour is also a good fit.

The second was Gamma Psc (STF299) The lowest satr of the Circlet.

This is a much tougher split and I could not get a clear separation until I used the 4mm Ortho (x300)

The Primay is white and the secondary looked a pale orange. The spectral class of the primary is A1V so again it was a good fit.

The measurements I obtained (whith some difficulty) were PA 298 degrees and separation 2" (WDS - PA 299 degrees, Separation 2.3" arc seconds)

This is one for a steady night :)

The final target was 84 Psc (STF 295) This was going to be the toughest of the lot.

The pair is slightly wider than gamma Psc but the magnitude difference is much greater.

I managed to split the pair using the 4mm with the Primary looking creamy/off-white and no colour on the secondary. The primary is F6V so the spectral class is a good fit.

I could not get a decent measure of the pair as the secondary was too dim/close to the primary. :)

This is one for a clear, steady , moonless night........whenever that happens :D

My neglected target was HL 30AB. A pair that had not been observed since 1886. It is on the d#edge of the Pleadies star cluster so could be quite a challenge.

I looked it up in Cartes du Ciel and swung the scope to the position. In CduC were 4 bright stars but visually only 2 were visible.

I measured the 2 bright stars and comfirmed they are STTA 40 and measured the 2 fiarter doubles.

From this information it appears that there are several different entries in the WDS for the same pair!! I will be checking into this further.

As part of this investigation I took a image of the star field Afocally and will be sending it to Dr Brian Mason in Washington.

As The camera was attached too the eyepiece I though I'd grab a few Moon pics. The seeing had imprved considerably at this point. I will post the pics later.

I thought I would have a look at some double in Orion. With the good seeing I wanted to get a really good split on Zeta. I was not disappointed :lol: at x300 the stars were very clearly separated. The best split I have ever had

By now it was 1.00am and although I would have liked to stay out I had to be up this morning so regretfully called it a night.

The 1st night of 2007 turned out to be a corker. I hope there are many more :D :D

Cheers

Ian

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