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A cold observing night
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Roy Diffrient
Excellent Kent – glad you got out. Wow, Sub-arcsecond seeing and 785X in a 6” refractor!
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Roy On Mar 21, 2023, at 8:51 AM, Kent Blackwell <kentblackwell@...> wrote: |
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jimcoble2000
What a cold but clear night. I was in semi dark skies so galaxies were on the list last night. The 4 inch does a fair job in dark skies and I visited around 20 or so and one nice small globular NGC 4147. There were a fair number of brighter galaxies in Ursa Major that were in the vicinity of brighter stars which makes for an interesting combination. M-3 was also visited at the end of the night. I always have fun using my observing notations in the chart as I rarely note which scope and location my notes apply to. This makes it a lot like English classical music. Eminently forgettable but it is fresh every time you hear it anyways. I used three eyepieces 10mm Delos, 6mm Delos (a lot heavier), and the 4mm Delite for this work. It had been some time since I have done galaxy work and I though my eyepiece had fogged up. No, it was just there are no background stars. M81/82 was also visited. Even if it is easy they are the best pair of galaxies in the sky for any size scope. The 10mm in the 4 inch was ideal. Seemed a bit wet last night and everything was frozen in the morning. End of March you know. My six inch refractor arrived last night so sorry about the rest of the month. "It's not my fault"
On Tuesday, March 21, 2023 at 08:51:23 AM EDT, Kent Blackwell <kentblackwell@...> wrote:
It was cold last night, but clear with very good seeing. Those conditions made it a good time to try splitting Sirius and Procyon. HD 66177 (Double Star in Canis Minor) Observed: Mar 20, 2023 at 8:24:47 PM Comment: Struve 1175 1.4" A very tight pair. The 7.6 magnitude primary is yellow and the 9th magnitude secondary is blue Location: Virginia Beach SQM-L 18.3 38° H 43% Equipment: 150mm Takahashi TOA 150, 5mm Pentax Seeing: 8 Transparency: 9 14 Canis Minoris (Double Star in Canis Minor) Observed: Mar 20, 2023 at 8:27:23 PM Comment: 100" A wide pair with magnitude contrast. A third, also wide star may be a component as well. Location: Virginia Beach SQM-L 18.3 38° H 43% Equipment: 150mm Takahashi TOA 150, 5mm Pentax Seeing: 8 Transparency: 9 HD 66177 (Double Star in Canis Minor) Observed: Mar 20, 2023 at 8:29:23 PM Comment: Struve 1175 1.6" A close pair with magnitude contrast Location: Virginia Beach SQM-L 18.3 38° H 43% Equipment: 150mm Takahashi TOA 150, 5mm Pentax Seeing: 8 Transparency: 9 HD 66801 (Double Star in Canis Minor) Observed: Mar 20, 2023 at 8:30:22 PM Comment: Struve 1182 4.7" A close pair but easily split Location: Virginia Beach SQM-L 18.3 38° H 43% Equipment: 150mm Takahashi TOA 150, 5mm Pentax Seeing: 8 Transparency: 9 HD 59538 (Double Star in Canis Minor) Observed: Mar 20, 2023 at 8:32:27 PM Comment: Struve 1103 4.9" Yellow primary and a light blue secondary Location: Virginia Beach SQM-L 18.3 38° H 43% Equipment: 150mm Takahashi TOA 150, 5mm Pentax Seeing: 8 Transparency: 9 Procyon - Alpha CMi (Double Star in Canis Minor) Observed: Mar 20, 2023 at 8:38:58 PM Comment: 5" 0.4 & 10.8 magnitude The pair are not particularly close but the primary is 10,000 times brighter With excellent seeing I suspected seeing the secondary using the 1.6mm Vixen HR at 685x Switching to the Gailand 7mm and Tele Vue 5x Barlow I definitely saw it at a whopping 785x. Location: Virginia Beach SQM-L 18.3 38° H 43% Equipment: 150mm Takahashi TOA 150, 5mm Pentax Seeing: 9 Transparency: 9 HR 2950 (Double Star in Canis Minor) Observed: Mar 20, 2023 at 8:51:50 PM Comment: Struve 1126 0.8" This little pair are in the same 5mm Pentax field of view as Procyon. Despite only 0.8" separation they're fairly easily split since the pair are nearly equal in magnitude Location: Virginia Beach SQM-L 18.3 38° H 43% Equipment: 150mm Takahashi TOA 150, 5mm Pentax Seeing: 9 Transparency: 9 Sirius - Alpha CMa (Double Star in Canis Major) Observed: Mar 20, 2023 at 9:05:05 PM Comment: At 11" separation Sirius and The Pup aren't challenging as far as separation goes but the primary is 4,000 times brighter. I saw it best with my homemade occulting 15mm Edmund RKE and the Tele Vue 5x Barlow at 365x. In 2023 The Pup is nearly as widely separated as it gets at 11". That's also the separation when Alvin Clarke discovered it with an 18" refractor in 1865. Location: Virginia Beach SQM-L 18.3 38° H 43% Equipment: 150mm Takahashi TOA 150, 5mm Pentax Seeing: 9 Transparency: 9 HD 58098 (Double Star in Monoceros) Observed: Mar 20, 2023 at 9:10:43 PM Comment: Struve 1084 10.4" Deep orange primary and a very faint blue secondary Location: Virginia Beach SQM-L 18.3 38° H 43% Equipment: 150mm Takahashi TOA 150, 5mm Pentax Seeing: 9 Transparency: 9 HD 55415 (Double Star in Monoceros) Observed: Mar 20, 2023 at 9:13:03 PM Comment: Struve 1045 5.4" Easily split pair. The primary is silver and the secondary is light blue Location: Virginia Beach SQM-L 18.3 38° H 43% Equipment: 150mm Takahashi TOA 150, 5mm Pentax Seeing: 9 Transparency: 9 Messier 50 (Open Cluster in Monoceros) Observed: Mar 20, 2023 at 9:17:07 PM Comment: M 50 is a beautiful but often overlooked open cluster of about 100 stars Location: Virginia Beach SQM-L 18.3 38° H 43% Equipment: 150mm Takahashi TOA 150, 5mm Pentax Seeing: 9 Transparency: 9 NGC 2299 (Open Cluster in Monoceros) Observed: Mar 20, 2023 at 9:18:48 PM Comment: Tiny open cluster of a half-dozen stars Location: Virginia Beach SQM-L 18.3 38° H 43% Equipment: 150mm Takahashi TOA 150, 5mm Pentax Seeing: 9 Transparency: 9 HR 2570 (Double Star in Monoceros) Observed: Mar 20, 2023 at 9:20:03 PM Comment: Struve 987 1.3" A tight pair of 6.7 and 7.3 magnitude stars Location: Virginia Beach SQM-L 18.3 38° H 43% Equipment: 150mm Takahashi TOA 150, 5mm Pentax Seeing: 9 Transparency: 9 HD 50637 (Double Star in Monoceros) Observed: Mar 20, 2023 at 9:21:42 PM Comment: Struve 985 35" A nice, wide pair of stars Location: Virginia Beach SQM-L 18.3 38° H 43% Equipment: 150mm Takahashi TOA 150, 5mm Pentax Seeing: 9 Transparency: 9 V614 Monocerotis (Variable Star in Monoceros) Observed: Mar 20, 2023 at 9:22:42 PM Comment: Wonderful deep red 7th magnitude carbon star Location: Virginia Beach SQM-L 18.3 38° H 43% Equipment: 150mm Takahashi TOA 150, 5mm Pentax Seeing: 9 Transparency: 9 HD 52533 (Double Star in Monoceros) Observed: Mar 20, 2023 at 9:23:29 PM Comment: This pair of stars are in the same field of view as the carbon star V614 Mon. The primary has a 2.6", 14th magnitude companion as well, but obviously I could not see it Location: Virginia Beach SQM-L 18.3 38° H 43% Equipment: 150mm Takahashi TOA 150, 5mm Pentax Seeing: 9 Transparency: 9 HD 93457 (Double Star in Ursa Major) Observed: Mar 20, 2023 at 9:29:58 PM Comment: Otto Struve 229 0.6 An exceedingly tight pair, but fortunately of nearly equal magnitude. Best split with the Takahashi TOA 3.4mm at 325x. Location: Virginia Beach SQM-L 18.4 37° H 46% Equipment: 150mm Takahashi TOA 150, 5mm Pentax Seeing: 9 Transparency: 9 UU Leonis Minoris (Variable Double Star in Leo Minor) Observed: Mar 20, 2023 at 9:35:09 PM Comment: 209" A very pretty pair of deep orange stars, widely separated Location: Virginia Beach SQM-L 18.4 37° H 46% Equipment: 150mm Takahashi TOA 150, 5mm Pentax Seeing: 9 Transparency: 9 HD 90441 (Double Star in Leo Minor) Observed: Mar 20, 2023 at 9:36:37 PM Comment: Struve 1432 28.5" Yellow primary and a deep blue secondary Location: Virginia Beach SQM-L 18.4 37° H 46% Equipment: 150mm Takahashi TOA 150, 5mm Pentax Seeing: 9 Transparency: 9 42 Leonis Minoris (Double Star in Leo Minor) Observed: Mar 20, 2023 at 9:38:24 PM Comment: 196" Gorgeous, widely separated pair. The primary is orange and the secondary is light red Location: Virginia Beach SQM-L 18.4 37° H 46% Equipment: 150mm Takahashi TOA 150, 5mm Pentax Seeing: 9 Transparency: 9 14 |
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In nights of good seeing the limiting factor of a good refractor seems to be just running out of light. What I need is an 8” APO refractor.
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Excellent work. It was galaxy night here at SRSP. Wonderful skies OK seeing but quite chilly.
cheers Ian |
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jimcoble2000
Yes it surely was cold. I feel for those in Staunton River. Hope it warms up. It has been a bit since I have seriously looked at galaxies. I can't comment on seeing as it doesn't matter as much for far out things. Nice to get dark (sort of) again. I am not so obsessed by dark skies as I once may have been. I think I'm now a follower of that ancient Greek philosopher, Mediocritese. Good enough........................ 
On Tuesday, March 21, 2023 at 10:49:58 AM EDT, Ian Stewart <swampcolliecoffee@...> wrote:
Excellent work. It was galaxy night here at SRSP. Wonderful skies OK seeing but quite chilly. cheers Ian |
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