a few burnhams

The rain last week pushed the bad air from the Bay Area.  With more on the way this week, there was a gap last night of relatively clear skies.  Transparency was poor (in fact the whole northeast was covered in low clouds), and dew was pretty heavy, but seeing was a decent 7/10.  Viewed what close doubles I could with Big Blue, 553x:

BU 1095: Very bright yellow- white A.  B is a very faint but consistent point resolved just beyond the first diffraction ring when seeing stills.  Nice to start off the night with this! [AB seen; AC and AD very wide and faint.]
00H 30M 07.34S +29° 45' 06.1" P.A. 16 SEP 2 MAG 5.22,13.10 SP A7III DIST. 62.77 PC (204.76 L.Y.)

STF 47: Easy; likely a triple.  Orange A star with 1.5 delta mag. B, 10".  Third star another 1 delta mag, further out in a similar PA.  [Correct about the triple; BU 1348 is the third star out, which is paired with both A and B -- pretty weird orbit, trying to picture it...]
00H 40M 19.78S +24° 03' 14.0" P.A. 205 SEP 16.6 MAG 7.25,8.82 SP A4III DIST. 131.58 PC (429.21 L.Y.)

BU 1310: Pretty orange stars but pairs are too faint; try with the 20-inch.  The equatorial platform is knocking (problem with the motor?) which interferes with the view; every couple of seconds a shudder through the scope.

00H 32M 39.47S +23° 11' 36.1" P.A. 213 SEP 3.8 MAG 6.86,11.80 SP G5IV DIST. 137.74 PC (449.31 L.Y.)

Ho 204: Nope.  Too faint.  Near zenith so tough to center.  Try in the 20.
23H 52M 14.16S +28° 34' 35.8" P.A. 357 SEP 5.7 MAG 8.52,10.70 SP K2

Ho 215 = 45 And: Disk seems not round but far for me to claim it.  try in the 20.
01H 11M 10.29S +37° 43' 26.9" P.A. 225 SEP 0.1 MAG 6.60,6.60 SP B7III-IV DIST. 242.13 PC (789.83 L.Y.)

BU 1147 = 2 And: Shard of light in the first diffraction ring.  But that's too far out (~1") to be it?  Try the 20.
3H 02M 36.34S +42° 45' 28.1" P.A. 137.7 SEP 0.05 MAG 5.19,7.70 SP A3VN DIST. 129.2 PC (421.45 L.Y.)

STF 2973: Yellow-white and surprisingly faint B -- appears as a haze and then a point appears with seeing; almost need averted vision.
23H 02M 45.15S +44° 03' 31.5" P.A. 39 SEP 7.5 MAG 6.41,10.14 SP B2V

Bvd 142: Orange stars, 1 delta mag, well separated (finder split).  B looks suspiciously like a pair -- but the transparency may be causing it to smear.  [!! This is quite an amazing catch considering the conditions!  AB is as described 7.80/10.28 79.6".  B is indeed a pair: TDT 3916 = BaBb, 10.69/11.41 0.6".  Discovered in 1991 and only one observation!  Holy cow!  Definitely try the 20!]
23H 10M 29.28S +41° 19' 18.7" P.A. 165 SEP 79.6 MAG 7.80,10.28 SP F5V+K0V

STF 2992: Well separated 2 delta mag. [AB seen; AC too faint]
23H 13M 06.32S +40° 00' 10.1" P.A. 285 SEP 14.3 MAG 7.66,9.59 SP A7III

NGC 7662: Blue Snowball, planetary nebula.  Even with poor transparency, near full moon, and red zone light pollution, this high surface brightness object shows.  Round shell, cut off slightly on one side; soft edges.  Two arcs of brighter filaments within the shell and hints of more detail.  No color; OIII no help (dims the object, actually)

STT 500: Disk seems not round, but unsure.  Try the 20.
23H 37M 32.03S +44° 25' 44.5" P.A. 20.3 SEP 0.4 MAG 6.08,7.38 SP B8V DIST. 247.52 PC (807.41 L.Y.)

BU 995: ! Very fine 4 delta mag, <0.8"
23H 47M 33.04S +46° 49' 57.2" P.A. 250 SEP 0.8 MAG 6.11,8.73 SP B3IV

BU 9001: Faint companion, wide separation. [AC seen.  AB, weirdly, is ES 9001, B star is fainter at 13.70 than C star.  AC Burnham was first in 1893, Espin AB second in 1914?  Why the reversed letter designation?]
00H 05M 09.75S +45° 13' 44.5" P.A. 235 SEP 21 MAG 6.69,10.58 SP A1VN DIST. 138.5 PC (451.79 L.Y.)

BU 997: Orange and blue, pretty, well separated.
00H 04M 57.53S +45° 40' 25.6" P.A. 337 SEP 3.8 MAG 7.64,9.39 SP F8IV-V DIST. 71.12 PC (231.99 L.Y.)

impromptu moon

With rain in the forecast I discounted doing any observing this week.  But while stepping outside last night to take out the garbage I noticed the moon was up with only a thin fog around it -- certainly worth the effort, which is none at all, to set-up and observe.  So I quickly opened up the shed and brought Big Blue out from its two week hibernation.  I viewed the moon at 310x with binoviewers at first, and the seeing was just barely able to support it.  No particular plan, and I didn't even open my atlas; just soaking in the views along the terminator, around Plato (four craters seen with some effort), along the limb with its hills on the horizon.  Then I switched to 97x, and followed a similar circular meandering path.  This time I was struck by the rays, their variety and greyscale, some in scattered fans, some in bright streaks, some blocked by mountains, and some, especially around Tycho, laying in a thick snow across the landscape. 

I thought about how the 20-inch would certainly best Big Blue on such a night, and give me some versatility.  If there are a clear few days next week I might set them up side by side and see exactly what the differences are.  I feel sad I am contemplating retiring Big Blue, it is such a fine scope and really is a "lifetime" back yard instrument.  But better is better.  If I could justify this by buying a portable large aperture scope for dark site deep sky work, then it would make the decision easier...

progress

I received the AutoCAL cable in the mail today and was able, after a couple of tries, to successfully do the program.  I failed the azimuth but after straightening the encoder arm with some washers it passed.  There has been some very bad wildfires so I haven't used the scope for a number of days.  Tonight I could just barely make our Daneb and Fomalhaut for a 2-star alignment.  It was good enough as I could go-to Mars pretty well.  I then slewed over to the moon; seeing was pretty good and I spent most time at 333x.  Plato revealed four craters, and the craters seemed more detailed than I recall.  The 20-inch really resolves well.

I plan to redo my wheelbarrow handles tomorrow and may have to move the scope back inside as there is some rain coming.  I think I need a fine-focus knob--I can snap to focus but with seeing I feel I could use some critical focus.  It started to dew up pretty good which is a good sign -- the wind is more on shore, and the air wetter, which means the smoke should start to be pushing to the east.  Hope there is another night or two for me to confirm the tracking is as improved as I think it is.

servo working

With the current spell of relatively clear weather I've kept my 20-inch set-up in the back yard and have been working on the servoCAT set-up.  Happily with a new setting program from the vendor, it finally works!  Tracking is smooth but has a very slow drift, but I can work it out with the tracking improvement protocols in the manual.  

Last night I spent some time going goto to various Messier objects, then Mars, Uranus, and Neptune.  It was a real pleasure to move object to object and have a look.  I need to work on better star alignment and the improving the tracking, but it will get better and I hope to really enjoy the new capability -- like spending time really studying objects, changing magnification, and all the rest.