Thursday, August 18, 2016

more doubles and moon

More or less a repeat session last night, Saturn, doubles, and the moon.  I started a bit late, at 9:30pm.  Saturn was lower and hurt by unsettled seeing.  So I quickly moved up for some doubles in Hercules, at 277x mostly:

Sh 227: Bright white and much fainter bluish B, wide separation.  [3.8, 10.1; 43"]

STF 2052: Hard to find given the full moon glare; can't see any stars in Sagittarius.  Pretty pale yellow-orange pair of equal magnitude, about 2" separation. [7.7, 7.8; 2.0" exactly!]

Webb (Her): White A, pretty wide separation, about 2 magnitudes difference.  The B gives the impression of being a very close kissing double.  [6.3, 7.3; 157"]

STF 2079: Wide separation, yellowish A about 7th magnitude, B about 8th.  [7.6, 8.1; 17"]

STF 2094: !! Wow!  White-orange pair of equal magnitude, clean split when the seeing stills and the diffraction clears up.  Third star off to the side, bluish about 3 magnitudes fainter, might be a triple? [AB 7.48, 7.87; 1.3".  AC 11.7; 24.7.  So I did observe the triple!]

NGC 6210: Turtle Nebula, a planetary nebula:  This is close to STF 2094 and I gave it a try.  I had made observations of it with my 20-inch a couple months ago.  I was very surprised to see it, given red zone light pollution and a full moon with some thin fog creating glare wiping out more than half the naked eye sky.  The PN was fairly bright and blinking, greenish, obround or almost rectangle in shape.  No central star, but it was mottled and its edges were soft and diffuse.  No filter used.

STF 2085: Bright A a "ruddy" yellow orange.  B about 2 magnitudes fainter, widely separated.  [7.38, 9.17; 6.3"]

STTA 149: Wide separation, white, A about 6th magnitude, B about 7th [7.24, 8.38; 97.7"]

Anonymous, about 2 degrees east of 19 Her, approximately 16h 30m +26 degrees: Using 553x, hairline split when seeing stills.  Very close orange-yellow pair, A about 1 magnitude brighter.  B is hidden in A's diffraction but there are for sure two disks when the seeing steadies.  Absolutely wonderful sight.

I again ended the night with a low power view of the whole moon.  It had not yet been hidden by the meridian tree so I had about 15 minutes of viewing before it passed behind some branches.  Can't get enough of that view.

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