I was in the mood for trying some imaging with my Toucam again and since I was going to the Bragan site I knew I wasn't going to get a better spot and conditions for imaging so I brought the laptop and cam with me.
Location = Bragan
Seeing = 4
Trans = 3
Equipment = EQ6 Pro with 4" Refractor, Toucam II Pro, Laptop and 15x70 Binos.
Start Time = 21:35
The observations for the night are as follows:
Jupiter = I started off the night trying to image Jupiter with my Toucam and got some decent results. I processed the AVIs when I got home and the best result is below to see. Visually the view was fantastic, with strong contrasts in the bands and in between the zones with a lot of detail. One of my finest views.
M57 - The finest view I've ever had of this through my refractor. Very crisp image with good contrast but detail cannot compare to my 10".
M101 - I decided to have a go with my binoculars now and I wasn't disappointed. The view was decent, the galaxy easy to see with most of the disk visible. This alone proved the good conditions of the night, before the moon made an appearance.
M31 - A stunning sight in the binos. Filling most of the FOV with M110 easily seen to the north. I can't remember having such a pleasing view of this galaxy in binos.
M51 - I was very surprised to see this in the binos but there it was and fairly easy to see with its bright nucleus catching the eye even with out AV.
Eta Cas - I now got back to using the scope and resuming my double star observations with Cassiopeia and who better to start with than Eta Cas. My finest view yet with great sharpness and pin point stars. The secondary star radiating an obvious shade of brown.
Alpha Cas - A decent looking double wiht quite a wide separation. This is a double I've overlook and am glad I didn't this time, certainly worth a look.
E3053 Cas - A lovely faint pair. Goldish central star with a blueish companion.
h 1088 Cas - The companion star was very faint which added to the delight I felt observing this system, very pleasing.
NGC 663 - This cluster was very close to h 1088 so I couldn't move in with out having a look. At low power this open cluster is rather nice with bright stars running through the cluster making a pleasing view.
NGC 654 - A complete reversal. Faint. not much to see and medium power (125x) revealed the best that this cluster had to offer, and it wasn't much.
h 1000 Cas - A strange but nice pair to view. The secondary being very faint, making it easy to over look. A thin wisp of haze passed over, probably a jet engine chem trail, causing the star to blink in and out of view.
Psi Cas - A fine double with a golden primary star and a very faint secondary and tow other fainter member of the system further out, and at at equal distances, making this a quadruple system.
Moon - The moon was about 15 degrees high now and still in an imaging mood I got the cam out again and started shooting. My best result is below to view. Visually it was a stunning sight. The great seeing conditions allowed for amazing resolution of small craters and peaks. I spent a while touring around the moon and then decided to call it a night.
Finish Time = 23:55
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