I hope all of you saw the lunar eclipse Tuesday morning.
It was very clear last night but the moon was, well, BRIGHT. Instead of setting up elaborate telescopes I opted for the TMB 100/800 refractor on an alt-azimuth mount. I've had the telescope a very long time and with the DiscMounts DM-4 alt-azimuth mount it makes for a quick setup arrangement. It takes me about as long to open the door to the shed as it does to set the scope up. Simply align on two stars with the Nexus II DSC and I was ready to go. First up was Jupiter, with the GRS visible and the moon Io about to ingress.
I also caught a glimpse of Mars later in the night. In between looking at Jupiter and Mars I visited some favorite double stars. Seeing was quite good most of the night and transparency was superb despite the above-mentioned bright moon.
List: 22/11/08 Night After Lunar Eclipse TMB 100
Jupiter
(Planet in Pisces)
Observed: Nov 8, 2022 at 8:20:05 PM
Comment: The seeing was excellent tonight.
Jupiter looked great with the GRS approaching the meridian and Io ready to ingress across the planet.
Location: Virginia Beach, VA, Full Moon 17.7 SQM-L, 54° H 55%
Equipment: 100 mm TMB f/8, 5mm Pentax
Seeing: 9
Transparency: 9
Almach - Gamma1 And
(Double Star in Andromeda)
Observed: Nov 8, 2022 at 8:30:55 PM
Comment: Struve 205
9.8"
It doesn't matter how many times I look at Almach it remains one of my favorite double stars. The colors are amazing. The brilliant primary is deep gold, and the secondary is light blue.
Location: Virginia Beach, VA, Full Moon 17.7 SQM-L, 54° H 55%
Equipment: 100 mm TMB f/8, 5mm Pentax
Seeing: 9
Transparency: 9
35 Piscium
(Variable Double Star in Pisces)
Observed: Nov 8, 2022 at 9:06:03 PM
Comment: Struve 12
11"
A 6th magnitude white primary and an 8th magnitude, blue secondary.
Location: Virginia Beach, VA, Full Moon 17.7 SQM-L, 54° H 55%
Equipment: 100 mm TMB f/8, 5mm Pentax
Seeing: 9
Transparency: 9
Theta Persei
(Variable Double Star in Perseus)
Observed: Nov 8, 2022 at 9:12:37 PM
Comment: Struve 296
Although a widely separated pair the primary is 4th magnitude while the secondary shines at 10th magnitude. The primary outshines the secondary 250 times! One of most memorable views of this was on Christmas Day in 2019 with my Meade 7" Maksutov and a 14mm Pentax.
Location: Virginia Beach, VA, Full Moon 17.7 SQM-L, 54° H 55%
Equipment: 100 mm TMB f/8, 5mm Pentax
Seeing: 9
Transparency: 9
77 Piscium
(Double Star in Pisces)
Observed: Nov 8, 2022 at 9:24:24 PM
Comment: Struve 90
32.9"
A yellow primary and a blue secondary widely separated
Location: Virginia Beach, VA, Full Moon 17.7 SQM-L, 54° H 55%
Equipment: 100 mm TMB f/8, 5mm Pentax
Seeing: 9
Transparency: 9
Zeta Piscium
(Variable Double Star in Pisces)
Observed: Nov 8, 2022 at 9:25:36 PM
Comment: Struve 100
22"
A colorful pair. The primary is pale blue, and the secondary has a hint of red. The seeing suddenly dropped from a 9 to a 7 or 8. The secondary looked red when I viewed this with the 80mm TMB November 29, 2019.
Location: Virginia Beach, VA, Full Moon 17.7 SQM-L, 54° H 55%
Equipment: 100 mm TMB f/8, 5mm Pentax
Seeing: 7
Transparency: 9
Psi1 Piscium
(Variable Double Star in Pisces)
Observed: Nov 8, 2022 at 9:32:38 PM
Comment: Struve 88
29.6"
A wonderful equal pair of blue stars.
Location: Virginia Beach, VA, Full Moon 17.7 SQM-L, 54° H 55%
Equipment: 100 mm TMB f/8, 5mm Pentax
Seeing: 7
Transparency: 9
Mars
(Planet in Taurus)
Observed: Nov 8, 2022 at 9:41:34 PM
Comment: Mars looked quite descent, even though low in the southern sky. It should be a good planet to view on the coming winter months. Once Mars rose to 30° tonight it looked much better, even with the high power 4mm Takahashi TOE at 200x in place.
Location: Virginia Beach, VA, Full Moon 17.7 SQM-L, 54° H 55%
Equipment: 100 mm TMB f/8, 5mm Pentax
Seeing: 7
Transparency: 9
1 Camelopardalis
(Variable Double Star in Camelopardalis)
Observed: Nov 8, 2022 at 9:45:39 PM
Comment: Struve 550
10"
A blue-white primary and a blue secondary, widely separated
Location: Virginia Beach, VA, Full Moon 17.7 SQM-L, 54° H 55%
Equipment: 100 mm TMB f/8, 5mm Pentax
Seeing: 7
Transparency: 9
HD 21488
(Double Star in Perseus)
Observed: Nov 8, 2022 at 9:47:50 PM
Comment: Struve 392
Light orange primary and a 10.5 magnitude secondary. The secondary showed nicely with averted vision on this very bright full moon night. I've only seen this twice before. Once with Mark Ost on December 12, 2020, and a month before that. Both times I was using the Takahashi TSA-120 and both times Mark Ost and I had to use averted vision to see the secondary.
Location: Virginia Beach, VA, Full Moon 17.7 SQM-L, 54° H 55%
Equipment: 100 mm TMB f/8, 5mm Pentax
Seeing: 7
Transparency: 9
118 Tauri
(Variable Double Star in Taurus)
Observed: Nov 8, 2022 at 9:57:03 PM
Comment: Struve 716
5"
Nice little tight pair of pure white stars, lying only 2 degrees from Mars tonight. I don't know why but I've logged it 16 times since 2018. It's not really all that special.
Location: Virginia Beach, VA, Full Moon 17.7 SQM-L, 54° H 55%
Equipment: 100 mm TMB f/8, 5mm Pentax
Seeing: 7
Transparency: 9
Adid Australis - Epsilon Per
(Variable Double Star in Perseus)
Observed: Nov 8, 2022 at 10:02:46 PM
Comment: Struve 471
8"
A gorgeous pair of stars. The brilliant primary is blue-white, and the contrastingly faint secondary is deep blue. The primary is 2.8 magnitude, and the secondary is nearly 9th magnitude. The primary is 645 times brighter. The last time I observed this was once again on a full moon night, February 16, 2022 using the Takahashi TOA 150.
Location: Virginia Beach, VA, Full Moon 17.7 SQM-L, 54° H 55%
Equipment: 100 mm TMB f/8, 5mm Pentax
Seeing: 7
Transparency: 9
