Weather wise the day was very nice. Mostly sunny with little cloud around and next to no wind. Conditions improved as night skies got closer, leaving a very clear night. There was some light atmospheric haze towards the horizons, probably caused from the high pressure system itself.
Overall I found the short observing session to be very rewarding and felt happy with all the new objects I observed.
The light haze in the atmosphere caused the light of the moon to scatter making it look brighter than it actually was but just polluted the sky and visual magnitude of the stars, so as it rose above the roof of my parents house I decided to call it a night.
Location = Fivemiletown
Seeing = 2
Trans = 2
Equipment = EQ6 Pro and 4" Refractor.
Start Time = 21:14
My observations are as follows:
Jupiter = A fine view tonight with a lot of detail to be seen all over the disk. Europa and Ganymede's orbits brought them very close together providing a lovely sight itself.
Almach = I thought I would start of my double star night with my personal favourite. The colours are even richer through my WO Star Diagonal (which was first light for it)
5 Ursa Minor = A very wide pair with a vibrant gold coloured main sequence star, other than that not much to look at.
Pi 1 Ursa Minor = Not an exciting pair. Both appearing similar in size, brightness and colour.
40/41 Ursa Minor = A fairly pleasing view with the pair being relatively close to each other and like Pi 1, similar in size, brightness and colour - which has the look of a washed out shade of gold.
Kappa Cepheus = A stunning pair! A nice tight double with the secondary star significantly fainter than it's main sequence star. One to remember.
Beta Cepheus (Alfirk) = Another delightful pair and very similar to Kappa in appearance and seperation with the only visual difference being the secondary giving a hint of colour in the light blue shade.
E2883 Cepheus = A fine faint pair. The parent star a pale goldish shade with a pale blue companion.
E2923 Cepheus = Quite faint and small but a pleasing sigh all the same. The secondary appeared very faint and flickered in and out of view due to the poorish seeing conditions.
Omicron Cepheus = A very tight pair and very pleasing to observe. 196x splits the pair very nicely, revealing the parent star to have a nice gold look and the secondary to have a plae blue shade. I think I observing this for more than five minutes.
Xi Cepheus = Another nice pair and fairly tight. Colour was hard to pick up but gave the impression of even paler shades to that of Omicron.
Garnet Star = I couldn't finish my night and leave Cepheus without a look at this gorgeous star. A colour so rich it just draws you in.
Finish Time = 23:34
Was tempted myself :) but ended up doing other stuff until too late. Looking forward to the weekend tho.
ReplyDeletePS are the start and finish times correct?
I am looking forward to the weekend too! I do like to do all my time consuming and not so fun, in sharing, observations when I am on my own. I guess I can do all my nerdy observations when I am on my own ;)
ReplyDeleteThe times are more or less accurate. The start time is usually the time I enter into the GOTO setup but if I am fooling around then I will usually check the time just before I start.
I always check the time after I look at my last object and use that as my finish time. Dismantling and putting everything away is normally never counted.
soooo
ReplyDeleteStart Time = 24:14
Finish Time = 23:34
somehow it just looks wrong to me :) roll on the weekend!
LOL! My dyslexia got the better of me again. Thanks for pointing that out. I of course meant Start Time = 21:14
ReplyDelete