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Date/time: 11/6/01
Equipment: Orion 80mm Short Tube f5 refractor
Aids: Bright Star Atlas 2000
Weather: Cool and clear. 50’s.
EP’s: 9mm Nagler (44x)
ROUND 1; 11-6-01, repeat last nights gaze:
Epsilon Lyrae: seen as a wide double consisting of equal intensity white stars.
Zeta Lyrae: a close double consisting of a white and yellow star. The white star is brighter.
Delta 1 and delta 2 Lyrae: seen as a wide double in the finder. The brighter star is yellow orange while the dimmer one is white.
Beta Lyrae: a close double, the brighter star is white yellow the dimmer one is much dimmer and is grey white.
Albereo: a close double consisting of a brighter orange star and a dimmer white one. But how much of the color is from the refractor. I'll have to repeat the list with a dob.
ROUND 2; later on 11/6/01:
M31 - a nice oval in the finder at 6x. Nice (though dim) binocular style view. Through the EP, it was an oval seems, though it less extensive then in the finder. But with averted vision there were hints of greater extensions to the side.
M33 - yeah, right.
Double cluster - Whoa! Dim in 25mm finder. Fewer stars seen in the EP then with normal (6-10") size scopes. Both cluster's were well within the center of the FOV. 2 close groups of less then a dozen stars. One of the components showed significant brightening with averted vision.
I'd noted that gamma, beta and delta Andromeda are all doubles. I thought that gamma was a close double of two “orangeish” stars, one much brighter then the other. A tight double at 44x. I think this is real. Did not see the other two as doubles.
Round 3; 11/7/01:
Larry asked me to meet him at the school for some observing with his astronomy class kids from HHS.
equipment:
Tim: a HHS student - 8" Orion dob. Nice scope. I like that tension adjust spring.
Larry: TV102 and 70mm Bino's on a parallelogram mount
Me: 6" dob, 80mm Orion Short tube, 7x50mm Binos.
Weather: cold 40-50ish, clear. I sense some high altitude moisture
Targets included: The Andromeda Galaxy, M13 and M15 (GC), M11 (OC), and the Double Cluster. We also observed the Pleadies. I like this object in the short tube. M57 was the sole PN seen. Double stars seen included: the double double in Lyrae at about 342x, Zeta Lyrae, and Albereo. Planets: Mars and Saturn. I looked at M103 but the students didn't.
Highlights for me were the Double Double in the 6” dob at 342x, Saturn in the 8” dob at 174x (you could see one band on the planet and the division in the rings), the ring nebula in the 6” (it was fairly bright). “Downers” were: M13 and M15 both seemed dim in these tiny scopes.
Comets seen: none
headlights seen: 106
All in all a nice low key evening.
What’s happening in your part of the universe?