Last night
|
jimcoble2000
Despite a cloud layer that persisted into the late night Kent and I were able to get in some observations that clouds don't hurt too much. We went through a series of double stars I had previously mentioned in an earlier post. Kent's meticulous record keeping, in contrast to my horrible record keeping, indicated we had tried to do one of them, several years ago and did not have a lot of luck. Probably we had reflectors at the time instead of large refractors. Mars in Kent's six inch was just as good as you can do with observing the planet with an amateur telescope. The six inch is just a killer planetary scope. Mars was best without a filter last night and the haze seemed to improve the view. Filters can often help and certainly increase contrast but at a cost of some detail even using the finest filter. I guess you just have to use what works. The resolution of the six inch is just astounding, a step above my five inch. A whole lot of steps above my four inch which really isn't a planetary scope. We saw quite a few fine details and smaller features with the scope. This year, Mars has turned out better than I initially thought it might. If we had had that scope two years ago no telling what it would have looked like but truth is optically you can only go so far on Mars. Years back I had a chance to work with an eight inch refractor but only for a couple of nights and my memory is a bit hazy as to what we saw. Once again used a couple of Kent's Gailand eyepieces from way back in the fifties. Gravity is highly curved around these eyepieces as they are quite dense and heavy. But the contrast is to die for in them. No eye relief to speak of and a soda straw FOV but wow what contrast and detail. |
|
|
|
Yes, we made the best of a relatively mediocre night. Here’s my report guaranteed to bore you all to tears.
List: 22/11/28 First Observing Night After Bahamas Cruise
Jupiter (Planet in Pisces) Observed: Nov 29, 2022 at 5:32:34 PM Comment: Very good seeing but with slight haze. Unfortunately no transits nor GRS tonight
Location: Virginia Beach Moon 1st Quarter SQM-L 17.2, 45°, H 75% Equipment: 150mm Takahashi TOA 150, 5mm Pentax Seeing: 9 Transparency: 7
Saturn (Planet in Capricornus) Observed: Nov 29, 2022 at 5:39:04 PM Comment: I haven't seen Saturn in a month or so and it's a welcomed sight. The Crepe Ring was a bit challenging now that Saturn is sinking to the western sky. Since it was dusk with a 1st quarter moon I was only able to see the moons Titan and Rhea. Location: Virginia Beach Moon 1st Quarter SQM-L 17.2, 45°, H 75% Equipment: 150mm Takahashi TOA 150, 5mm Pentax Seeing: 9 Transparency: 7
HD 13482 (Double Star in Aries) Observed: Nov 29, 2022 at 7:27:29 PM Comment: Struve 296 1.8" Challenging pair of stars. The white primary is 8th magnitude and a light blue 8th magnitude secondary Location: Virginia Beach Moon 1st Quarter SQM-L 17.2, 41°, H 85% Equipment: 150mm Takahashi TOA 150, 5mm Pentax Seeing: 8 Transparency: 7
HD 14066 (Double Star in Aries) Observed: Nov 29, 2022 at 7:43:45 PM Comment: Struve 240 4.8" Nice, colorful pair. The primary is yellow and the secondary is blue Location: Virginia Beach Moon 1st Quarter SQM-L 17.2, 41°, H 85% Equipment: 150mm Takahashi TOA 150, 5mm Pentax Seeing: 8 Transparency: 6
SAO 75304 (Double Star in Aries) Observed: Nov 29, 2022 at 7:45:12 PM Comment: Struve 254
A wide pair of stars but the 10.6 magnitude secondary is quite faint on this hazy night Location: Virginia Beach Moon 1st Quarter SQM-L 17.2, 41°, H 85% Equipment: 150mm Takahashi TOA 150, 5mm Pentax Seeing: 8 Transparency: 6
HR 728 (Double Star in Aries) Observed: Nov 29, 2022 at 7:50:15 PM Comment: Struve 271 10" A wide pair but the secondary is faint at 10.5 magnitude. I did see it, and Mark Ost confirmed the sighting. I should revist it on a clearer night. Location: Virginia Beach Moon 1st Quarter SQM-L 17.2, 41°, H 85% Equipment: 150mm Takahashi TOA 150, 5mm Pentax Seeing: 8 Transparency: 6
CS Camelopardalis (Variable Double Star in Camelopardalis) Observed: Nov 29, 2022 at 8:00:34 PM Comment: Struve 385 2.3" Mark Ost suggested this. It's an excellent, challenging double not only because they are so close together but also because of magnitude contrast. The primary is 4.2 magnitude and the secondary is 7.8. The primary is light yellow and the secondary is faint but pure white. There are two other doubles in the same field. I've only seen this once, January 17, 2020 using the 16". I noted back then it would be a good test for a 4" or 5" refractor. Location: Virginia Beach Moon 1st Quarter SQM-L 17.2, 41°, H 85% Equipment: 150mm Takahashi TOA 150, 5mm Pentax Seeing: 8 Transparency: 6
HD 21224 (Double Star in Camelopardalis) Observed: Nov 29, 2022 at 8:04:51 PM Comment: Struve 384 2.0" Tight but easy pair in the same field of view as CS Cam Location: Virginia Beach Moon 1st Quarter SQM-L 17.2, 41°, H 85% Equipment: 150mm Takahashi TOA 150, 5mm Pentax Seeing: 8 Transparency: 6
HD 237146 (Double Star in Camelopardalis) Observed: Nov 29, 2022 at 8:06:44 PM Comment: No Struve number No Struve number 5.1" Another double in the same field of view as CS Cam, Struve 385. The primary is 9.8 magnitude and the very faint secondary is 11.3. The secondary required averted vision on this hazy, 1st quarter moon night. The 5mm Pentax showed it best. Location: Virginia Beach Moon 1st Quarter SQM-L 17.2, 41°, H 85% Equipment: 150mm Takahashi TOA 150, 5mm Pentax Seeing: 8 Transparency: 5
HR 1043 (Variable Double Star in Camelopardalis) Observed: Nov 29, 2022 at 8:13:42 PM Comment: Struve 389
A very pretty little pair of magnitude contrasting stars. The primary is blue-white and the secondary is blue Location: Virginia Beach Moon 1st Quarter SQM-L 17.2, 41°, H 85% Equipment: 150mm Takahashi TOA 150, 5mm Pentax Seeing: 8 Transparency: 5
Uranus (Planet in Aries) Observed: Nov 29, 2022 at 8:31:25 PM Comment: This is the first time this year seeing Uranus. It's not the deep green color of Neptune but it surely is larger in angular size. Location: Virginia Beach Moon 1st Quarter SQM-L 17.2, 41°, H 85% Equipment: 150mm Takahashi TOA 150, 5mm Pentax Seeing: 8 Transparency: 5
Pi Arietis (Variable Double Star in Aries) Observed: Nov 29, 2022 at 8:33:53 PM Comment: Struve 311 3.2" A wonderful magnitude contrasting pair. The primary is 5.3 magnitude and the secondary is 7.8. Location: Virginia Beach Moon 1st Quarter SQM-L 17.2, 41°, H 85% Equipment: 150mm Takahashi TOA 150, 5mm Pentax Seeing: 8 Transparency: 4
Nu Ceti (Double Star in Cetus) Observed: Nov 29, 2022 at 8:39:04 PM Comment: Struve 281 5.1" A bright 4.8 magnitude yellow primary and a very faint 9.8 magnitude secondary Location: Virginia Beach Moon 1st Quarter SQM-L 17.2, 41°, H 85% Equipment: 150mm Takahashi TOA 150, 5mm Pentax Seeing: 8 Transparency: 4
HD 15804 (Double Star in Cetus) Observed: Nov 29, 2022 at 8:42:14 PM Comment: Struve 276 1.7" A tight pair of 9.1 and 9.5 magnitude stars Location: Virginia Beach Moon 1st Quarter SQM-L 17.2, 41°, H 85% Equipment: 150mm Takahashi TOA 150, 5mm Pentax Seeing: 8 Transparency: 4
Mars (Planet in Taurus) Observed: Nov 29, 2022 at 8:52:37 PM Comment: Mars looked fantastic tonight. Mark Ost and I noted the small polar cap. Syrtis Major on the northeast border was quite prominent though. We both agreed it looked best with no filter. The best view was with the 4.0mm Takahashi TOE eyepiece at 275x. The 3.3mm Takahashi TOE at 333x was also quite nice when seeing would support such high power Location: Virginia Beach Moon 1st Quarter SQM-L 17.2, 41°, H 85% Equipment: 150mm Takahashi TOA 150, 5mm Pentax Seeing: 8 Transparency: 4
Sent from Mail for Windows
From: Mark Ost
Sent: Wednesday, November 30, 2022 11:30 AM To: kentblackwell; Roy Diffrient; David Wright; BBAA-Group Subject: Last night
Despite a cloud layer that persisted into the late night Kent and I were able to get in some observations that clouds don't hurt too much. We went through a series of double stars I had previously mentioned in an earlier post. Kent's meticulous record keeping, in contrast to my horrible record keeping, indicated we had tried to do one of them, several years ago and did not have a lot of luck. Probably we had reflectors at the time instead of large refractors.
Mars in Kent's six inch was just as good as you can do with observing the planet with an amateur telescope. The six inch is just a killer planetary scope. Mars was best without a filter last night and the haze seemed to improve the view. Filters can often help and certainly increase contrast but at a cost of some detail even using the finest filter. I guess you just have to use what works. The resolution of the six inch is just astounding, a step above my five inch. A whole lot of steps above my four inch which really isn't a planetary scope. We saw quite a few fine details and smaller features with the scope. This year, Mars has turned out better than I initially thought it might. If we had had that scope two years ago no telling what it would have looked like but truth is optically you can only go so far on Mars. Years back I had a chance to work with an eight inch refractor but only for a couple of nights and my memory is a bit hazy as to what we saw.
Once again used a couple of Kent's Gailand eyepieces from way back in the fifties. Gravity is highly curved around these eyepieces as they are quite dense and heavy. But the contrast is to die for in them. No eye relief to speak of and a soda straw FOV but wow what contrast and detail.
|
|
|