doubles

The night of 29 November I spent some time in the back with the 12.5-inch observing doubles.  Seeing was predicted to be better than it was, which was a consistent Pickering 6.  While the mirrors were collimated, the defocused star image showed the secondary shadow was not in the middle.  Huh!?  Anyway I didn't spend time thinking about it and just kept observing.  Dew was fairly heavy but didn't interfere.

Started out near Gamma Cygni @ 277x:

STF 2762: Bright white and fainter blue B, very wide separation.  Suspect A is egg shaped?  [I probably saw AC, 5.7, 10.22; 59.3".  AB is 3.3" and 8.10 mag, so possibly the egg shape was the B pair, just not high enough power or seeing to split.  There is also an AD at 73"]

Bright anonymous NW of Sadr: Orange, bright, with small B ~ 2 disks away.

Anonymous at center of NGC 6910: Is the wide separation, equal brightness orange pair, 1/2 of cluster width separation?

STT 205: Yellow and orange pair ~ delta mag.  [7.91, 8.91; 45.1" -- spectral class blue-white?]

STF 2668: White and reddish-brown B, ~3 delta mag., 2" or so.  [Saw AB,C: 6.34, 8.49; 3.3".  AB is 0.2"]

STT 206: Think it's the widely separated ~1 delta mag. but then there's a star popping out with averted vision in between them.  Two other stars nearby, about as bright as the first pair, may also me in the system.  [AB is the widely separated pair seen first: 6.72, 8.63, 44.2", PA 256.  AD is the faint one seen "in between" these two: mag. 11.0, 24.8".  There is a BC pair, 10.6 mag, 19.6", PA 70 degrees, which I did not notice.]

M29: Sparse, small, loose, no concentration.  Separated well from background.  12 stars in opposite parenthesis like: )(.  Misty background, so must be many more fainter as part of the cluster.

Anonymous double above M29: Wide separation, near equal brightness pair.

h1953: Cetus' nose star.  Orange star, faint blue widely separated B blinking to north.  Another brighter to south, east, and west.  Not clear which is the pair.  [Saw AB blinking to the north: 3.67, 12.87, 68.4", PA 18 degrees.  AC is mag. 10.4, 106.4", PA 191 degrees which could have been one of the brighter I had seen.]

A racoon just scampered by!  I heard some of my spare wood near the air conditioner toppling over, then looked over and saw it walking quickly past the back steps.

5 Ceti: Faint pair of orange stars, wide separation, ~2 delta mag.

h1981: White pair, PA to east, ~2 delta mag.  [A,BC is 6.91, 8.43; 78.7", PA 90 degrees -- right on!  BC is 0.1"]

h1995: Fairly dim B, wide and just above averted vision threshold.  PA to east.  Two more stars to west.  [6.69, 11.32 -- which is why so dim.  42.4", PA 128 degrees.]

Anonymous near base of trapezium above h1995: Yellow A and close orange B ~3 delta mag difference.  PA to the NNW.  Nice!

STF 39: Yellow and blue pair, PA to NE.  Pretty.  [Actually a quadruple system, though AB is 0.2".  AB,C is likely what I saw, 7.10, 8.65; 16.6" PA 44 degrees.  AB,D is 10th mag and 159"]

h 322: Orange in finder.  Bright orange A with very faint blue B, ~10" to south.  Nice!  [5.90, 10.18; 11.6".  Burnham discovered AC, 11th mag,  222.9"]

Anonymous to east of STF 39: Bright yellow with a wide separation.  Bright white pair to west.  Why is this not designated on CDSA?

Anonymous, in triangle above the last: No split, even with 553x.

@ 553x for the rest of the session:

STF 91: Pale yellow and pale orange pair, wide separation, PA to the WNW.  [7.43, 8.56; 4.3"]

STF 113: Gold and blue, pretty.  2" PA to north.  [This is a A,BC pair, 6.45, 6.99; 1.6".  BC is 0.1"]

Anonymous to east of 43 Ceti: Orange A but very wide split to east.  White B.

STF 84: Pale yellow and almost dark purple B, 2 delta mag, ~6" [AB is 6.11, 9.52; 16.2".  AC is 14th mag and very widely separated.]

STF 90: Very easy white-yellow pair, ~0.5 delta mag, wide PA to the east.  [This is a very complex system, AB, AC, AD, AE, and B has Ba/Bb.  What I saw was AB, 6.39, 7.26; 32.9"]

80 Psc: Bright white, no close split; checking the list, it should be a very wide/faint.  I do see a star with AV to the east.

WW Psc: Orange star, very faint.  Very wide separated B almost due east.  [Did not see the pair; 6.34, 13.4 -- too faint -- 30" PA 313 degrees]

Anonymous to east of WW Psc: Very tight, very faint.  PA to west, in diffraction.  Very nice!

Delta Psc: Too messy & bright to split.