80mm f/15 first light

After what seems like a month of cloudy and rainy weather, we had a pocket of clear skies tonight.  It wasn't especially good -- transparency still poor and seeing worse -- but it was my first opportunity to look through the 80mm f/15 Jaegers refractor I acquired.  I intend it for a H-alpha solar scope, but I've discovered it's a very pleasing nighttime instrument as well.

When the scope arrived the focuser was jolted out of square with the tube, and I was surprised to find no set screws for the focuser.  So during the day today I affixed the focuser to the tube by drilling holes and using thread forming screws.  I accidentally broke off one drill bit into the hole I was drilling, but it serves the purpose to set the focuser!  I also made a make-shift dew shield with some black foam and Velcro.  I set up my tripod with simple alt-az mount to its tallest setting, and find that it is still not tall enough to comfortably view with the scope at zenith.  It's a shaky mount too and not able to handle the 20 pounds this 80mm weighs.

The first target was M42, and I was able to sight up the scope tube and find it pretty quickly with a 40mm plossl eyepiece.  Nebulosity looked really good, especially the dark nebula, which was a surprise and indicates the scope has very good contrast (it is baffled by I think three or maybe four disks inside the tube).  I steadily increased magnification, first a 26mm plossl then a 13mm Ethos -- and yet I could not find the E or F stars in the trapezium.  The Ethos gave a stunning view, as it usually does.  Stars were nice and pin point and a rough star test showed round on both sides of focus (though seeing was not nearly good enough).

Next was M45, which was at zenith, and I needed to sit on the ground to reach the eyepiece.  So, a taller mount is called for.  A telrad at the objective end of the tube would be very helpful.  But the main issue is the height and steadiness of the mount.

I tried Rigel next, and could not find its B star.  M35 showed a pleasing spray of stars.  No question but refractors show the prettiest sky images.

So now I can move with confidence to make a cell for the energy rejection filter, and to go ahead with the solar scope.  My only worry is if there is enough in focus.  And of course the mount.

During the day I had a quick look at the sun with the PST, and it showed one large faint fan like prominence on one end of the limb and a small bright spike on the other side.  Looking forward to more views.

great flares

I tried to spend some time outside this morning, since there is a storm approaching with rain starting this afternoon and lasting until Tuesday.  Out on the trail I was very surprised to see a bald eagle, flying right above me and landing on a tree.  He was being harassed by crows.  Large bird, with the distinctive white head, hooked beak, and large yellow-orange feet.  He flew off after a minute or so.  First time to see one.

After lunch there was a nice bright clear window between the clouds so I brought out my PST.  There were two very nice prominences visible.  One was a short but very bright hook, and the other, about 60 degrees away, was a very large faint fountain, spraying in an irregular fan shape very far from the limb.  There was a smaller arc nearby but I don't think they were connected.  The SDO image shows the bright hook at 9:30 and the large fan at 2:00.  I did not see the third prominence at 11:00; maybe it sprung up between when I had lunch then came up here to post!  I could see very fine graining / orange peel on the disk but only along the rim of the disc.

177p/barnard

In this blog's Christmas 2016 post I wrote about The Immortal Fire Within, a biography of EE Barnard.  I mentioned one of his comet discoveries, which was designated in the book as 1889 III.  The biographer mentioned that the orbital period would set the comet's return in 2019, and I tried to make a mental note of it in case I could try to recover it--likely the last chance to see a Barnard comet in anyone now alive on earth's lifetime.

Well it turns out I forgot about this one until today, near the end of 2019.  Not finding any reports of "1889 III" online I did some more searching, and found the correct designation is 177p/Barnard, and that its actual orbital period is 119 years, and that it was seen during the summer of 2006.  So the book was incorrect.  It was pretty bright too, 8th magnitude.

I'll need to keep better track of such observing opportunities...

busy day

The 23rd was full of astronomical activity:

After lunch I checked the NASA solar website and noticed there were some nice prominences out, so I grabbed my PST and had a satisfying look at one particularly large one, shaped like a fountain with a very focused point and spreading out in a fan, the ejecta raining down on either side.

At dusk I saw a fairly close (I guess around three degrees) conjunction of Jupiter and Venus through a gap in the trees. Venus was quite bright. I was able to show Clara.

During the night I viewed many double stars. Seeing was only fair, about 6/10, so I used the 8" mask frequently. Transparency also fair, 2.5/5. Seems we'll never have a very clear night...

BU 1034 AB, 8" 333x: A star is orange and bright, the mask is giving a good clean image at moments, with some disturbance (seeing 6/10). B star is faint but a nice hard point outside A's first diffraction, ~2", noticed it right away even though it is on the edge of direct vision, but do not need averted to see it. Dependent on seeing. Tried at full 20" aperture but A was too messy, and did not clean up well enough with apodizing mask. Low in the sky and in fact lost it behind a tree a few minutes after making the observation"
20h 56m 54.02s -09° 41' 51.1" P.A. 165 sep 2.1 mag 5.70,11.40 Sp gK5 dist. 167.5 pc (546.38 l.y.)

HU 392 AB: 20" 1067x: Split with seeing, usually an elongated smear. Noticeable mag difference. Suspected at even at 8" 333x, and ramped up from there, but needed the power to get it
22h 38m 57.89s +18° 49' 57.4" P.A. 354 sep 0.7 mag 10.15,9.98 Sp K0

ES 265 AB: 20" 533x: Easy pair half delta mag, wide
22h 43m 59.40s +33° 37' 48.4" P.A. 5 sep 8.9 mag 10.20,10.70

STF 2945 AB: 20" 533x: Bright white, wide, near equal
22h 49m 41.25s +31° 18' 39.1" P.A. 300 sep 4.2 mag 9.06,9.11 Sp F0 dist. 115.47 pc (376.66 l.y.)

J 3182 AB, 20" 533x, Easy pair, wide, one delta mag
22h 50m 37.75s +32° 55' 39.4" P.A. 159 sep 4.1 mag 9.30,9.70

MLB 586 AB, 20" 533x: Faint wide pair one delta mag. [not physical]
22h 51m 03.53s +30° 01' 32.8" P.A. 8 sep 6.7 mag 10.50,11.50

HJ 1819 AB & DOO 91: 20" 533x: A is bright white and B is much fainter and wide. B also has a pair, one detla mag to itself, closely separated, slightly more than ninty degrees from the AB PA.
22h 51m 16.00s +29° 14' 02.1" P.A. 71 sep 14.4 mag 8.54,11.00 Sp A0 dist. 147.49 pc (481.11 l.y.)
22h 51m 17.09s +29° 14' 06.8" P.A. 342 sep 3.9 mag 11.00,12.50 dist. 147.49 pc (481.11 l.y.)

STF 2949 AB: 20" 533x: Quite easy, B is a little blue, wide.
22h 51m 56.12s +30° 01' 41.4" P.A. 182 sep 11.4 mag 9.65,10.69 Sp F8

TDT3763 AB: 20" 533x: ! Cool! B just shows itself with seeing ~1.5" separation. Can tell its there, even with some smearing it does resolve to a point
22h 52m 24.77s +28° 18' 54.9" P.A. 13 sep 1.7 mag 10.43,11.85

KU 66 AB: 20" 533x: Easy near equal wide pair
22h 54m 59.62s +33° 04' 20.7" P.A. 3 sep 3.7 mag 10.64,11.00 Sp K0+G5

BRT 61 AB: 20" 533x: Faint but easy near equal pair, wide, white [not physical]
22h 55m 28.55s +29° 53' 55.3" P.A. 59 sep 4.7 mag 11.50,11.70

HJ 976 AB, 20" 533x: Easy wide, equal pair
22h 56m 34.47s +31° 50' 23.1" P.A. 72 sep 8.5 mag 10.50,10.50

HO 192 AB: 20" 533x: Much fainter B, ~1.5", two delta mag.
22h 59m 47.55s +30° 04' 38.5" P.A. 30 sep 1.5 mag 8.65,10.57 Sp A5V dist. 235.85 pc (769.34 l.y.)

STF 2968 AB: 8" 533x: Pretty yellow-white A and bluish B, pretty wide, two delta mag
23h 00m 42.41s +31° 04' 58.7" P.A. 93 sep 3.2 mag 6.69,9.48 Sp B9pMn dist. 135.5 pc (442 l.y.)

ES 2362 AB: 20" 533x: Near equal faint, ~2"
23h 01m 32.70s +31° 02' 39.2" P.A. 186 sep 2 mag 11.10,11.60

HO 193 AB: 20" 533x: Pretty faint yellow B, two delta mag to white A, a little more than 2" separation
23h 03m 42.24s +29° 53' 58.2" P.A. 173 sep 2.5 mag 8.34,10.68 Sp F6V dist. 73.53 pc (239.85 l.y.)

STF 2974 AB: 20" 533x: Easy 1 delta mag white, pretty wide
23h 05m 01.12s +33° 23' 08.0" P.A. 168 sep 2.7 mag 8.07,8.46 Sp A0V+A3V dist. 244.5 pc (797.56 l.y.)

STF 174 AB: 8" 533x: 1 Ari. ! Very beautiful yellow-orange A and robin's egg blue B, 3", one delta mag. probably one of the best color pairs
01h 50m 08.60s +22° 16' 29.5" P.A. 165 sep 2.9 mag 6.33,7.21 Sp G3III dist. 179.53 pc (585.63 l.y.)

HO 311: AB 20" 1067x: Nice clear split with seeing, more near equal but there is a noticeable magnitude difference, white stars
01h 51m 13.34s +24° 39' 08.0" P.A. 179.1 sep 0.41 mag 8.22,7.82 Sp F1V dist. 131.06 pc (427.52 l.y.)

J 671 AB: 20" 533x: B star is faint but not difficult, ~3", very nice
01h 52m 58.18s +21° 52' 13.1" P.A. 153 sep 2.7 mag 11.60,11.80

STF 180 AB: 8" 533x: Gamma Arietis / Mesarthim: Perfectly equal pair, wide, very white.
01h 53m 31.76s +19° 17' 38.6" P.A. 2 sep 7.4 mag 4.52,4.58 Sp A1pSi+B9V dist. 50.3 pc (164.08 l.y.)

BU 260 AB: 8" 533x: Fine pair, well split, half delta mag.
01h 53m 14.21s +15° 26' 00.3" P.A. 261.4 sep 1.09 mag 8.75,8.97 Sp F5 dist. 110.74 pc (361.23 l.y.)

COU 352 AB: 20" 533x: Faint pair, smeared, elongated and resolves with seeing and averted vision
01h 54m 23.02s +17° 53' 43.8" P.A. 21 sep 1 mag 11.01,11.56 Sp F2

HEI 433 AB: 20" 533x: 11th mag B star easier since wider separation, faint, half delta mag, wide pair
01h 54m 28.42s +17° 37' 49.7" P.A. 192 sep 3.6 mag 10.80,11.60

HEI 208 AB: 20" 533x: Very faint, need to wait for seeing, splits with seeing and a little averted vision, ~1.5", half delta mag
01h 54m 37.99s +14° 05' 34.2" P.A. 180 sep 1.4 mag 11.43,11.84

A 2323 AB: 20" 533x: Fine pair, easily seen B, not difficult since wider separation. ~1.5", 1.5 delta mag
01h 54m 45.56s +17° 28' 01.4" P.A. 146 sep 1.7 mag 9.50,10.88 Sp K0

COU 453 AB: 20" 533x: ! I get clean split, the B star is very faint and just within A's diffraction ring, but it's there. Great!
01h 56m 19.96s +25° 20' 24.0" P.A. 281 sep 0.7 mag 10.45,10.79 Sp F0

STF 189: 20" 533x: Orange and blue stars, wide, surprised these are nice hard points
01h 57m 09.47s +18° 57' 32.2" P.A. 269 sep 9 mag 9.88,10.97 Sp K7

STF 194 AB: 20" 533x: Lovely white pair, near equal, well separated, ~3"
01h 59m 18.95s +24° 49' 44.6" P.A. 279 sep 1.3 mag 7.62,9.46 Sp A3 dist. 193.42 pc (630.94 l.y.)

STF 200 AB: 20" 533x: Wide separated white pair, more than one delta mag.
02h 01m 36.23s +24° 05' 22.3" P.A. 124 sep 8.1 mag 9.55,10.29 Sp G0

STF 208 AB: 8" 533x: 10 Ari Pretty white and slightly off-white or blue-white B, 2.5 delta mag, ~1.5"
02h 03m 39.26s +25° 56' 07.6" P.A. 348.5 sep 1.55 mag 5.82,7.87 Sp F8IV dist. 48.71 pc (158.89 l.y.)

TDS2117 AB: 20" 533x: Fine near equal white pair, well separated to wide.
02h 06m 24.51s +21° 41' 56.0" P.A. 14 sep 2.1 mag 10.77,10.97

HO 312 AB: 20" 533x: 11 Ari Used apodizing screen to tone A down. B is bluish & resolves out on the edge of A's diffraction with seeing and is very, very faint compared to A.

02h 06m 49.22s +25° 42' 16.5" P.A. 340 sep 1.7 mag 6.00,11.50 Sp B9IV-Vn dist. 268.82 pc (876.89 l.y.)

I closed the night with a long look at Uranus, beautiful aqua blue.

alpha monocerotids

There was a news item earlier in the week that there was a possibility of a meteor burst on Thursday night the 21st.  It would be from about 8:30pm to 9:30pm and possibly have 400 in an hour.  The radiant would be below our horizon during this time, but it should still be possible to see the high grazers skipping the atmosphere at higher altitudes.

So I drove up to Henry Coe with Clara & Carol.  Traffic was very bad (many leaving work a bit early to get out of town for Thanksgiving), and we stopped along the way for a quick dinner.  We arrived at the overflow parking lot at 7:30, and I was surprised to find it well and truly padlocked, not just dummy locked as in years past.  It seems one does need to contact the rangers in advance, though I never needed to before.  We parked outside the gate and each of us tried to take a nap.  Shortly after 8:00 I walked our lawn chairs into the parking lot and set them up facing east.  Wrapped snugly in our sleeping bags and blankets, we started to look.

We could see lights from the ranger station across the little valley, and hear some people talking in the campground.  But otherwise it was quiet, except for some train whistles sounding from far below. The winter Milky Way could be faintly seen east of meridian; M31 was visible naked eye as it passed overhead.  We had a nice time watching Orion rise.

One other person arrived before 9pm, and sat near us as we all waited.  We saw a couple sporadics, none of them quite bright, but it was heading in the wrong direction.  I kept waiting...  Clara fell asleep.  Finally at 9:15 I felt something might be wrong, since it was well past the predicted peak.  At 9:30 still nothing, so we decided to go home.

Obviously the prediction was wrong.  I read later that the originating comet is long period and its orbit is not precisely known, so there is more margin of error than what past events might lead one to believe.

I was not disappointed, though.  I liked being outside with Clara and Carol, and I think we had a good time.  We saw an owl, two stags, and a possum on the drive home, which was wonderous.

double star name prefixes

At the risk of this post coming up with every search run on the blog, here is a list of the double star discoverer names / prefixes which I've accumulated the last few months from various sources, on line and in print.  What would be better is a little summary of who they were, when & where they observed, and how many discoveries they made -- but this will take a lot more research.  Maybe I can work on it during idle time at work...

A - Aitken, R.G.
AC - Clark, Alvan
ADS - ADS catalog
AG - Astronomische Gesellschaft catalog
AGC - Clark, A.G.AHD - Ahad, A.
ALD - Alden, H.L.
ALI - Ali, A.
ALT - van Altena, W.
ARA - Aravamudan, S.
ARG - Argelander, F.
ARN - Arnold, D.
B - Bos, W.H. van den
BAL - Baillaud, R.
BAR - Barton, E.E.
BGH - van den Bergh, S.
BHA - Bhaskaran, T.P.
BLZ - Balz, A.
BOW - Bowyer, W.M.
BPM - Burnham proper motion
BPMA - Bordeaux catalog
BRD - Bird, F.
BRT - Barton, S.G.
BSO - Brisbane Obs.
BU - Burnham, S.W.
BUP - Burnham, S.W.
BVD – Benavides, R.
CBL – Caballero, R.
COO - Cordoba Obs.
COU - Couteau, P.
CPO - Cape Observatory
CVR - Chivers, J.
D - Dembowski, E.
DA - Dawes, William R.
DAM - Damm, F.
DAW - Dawson, B.H.
DEA - Deacon, N.R. et al.
DON - Donner, H.F.
DOO - Doolittle, E.
DOR - Dorpat Obs.
DU - Duner, N.C.
DUN - Dunlop, J.
EGB - Egbert, H.V.
EGG - Eggen, O.J.
ELS - Ellison, M.A.
ENG - Engelmann, R.
ES - Espin, T.E.
FEN - Fender, F.G.
FIL - Filipov, M.L.
FIN - Finsen, W.S.
FLE - Fleckenstein, J
FMR - Rica Romero, F.M.
FOX - Fox, P.
GAL - Gallo, J.
GAN - Anderson, G.
GAU - Gauchet, P.L.
GCB - Giacobini, M.
GIC - Giclas, H.
GLE - Gale, W.F.
GLI - Gilliss, J.M.
GLP - Glasenapp, S.
GNT – Grant
GRB - Groombridge, S.
GRV - Greaves, J.
GWP - Hough, G.W.
GYL - Goyal, A.N.
H - Herschel, William
HAU - Haupt, H.
HDO - Harvard Obs.
HDS – Hipparcos Double Star
HSO – Hipparcos Catalog
HEI - Heintz, W.D.
HIL - Hill, L.
HJ - Herschel, John
HJL - Halbwachs, J.L.
HLD - Holden, E.S.
HLM - Holmes, E.
HLN - Holden, F.
HO - Hough, G.W.
HRG - Hargrave, L.
HTG - Hastings, C.S.
HU - Hussey, W.J.
HWE - Howe, H.A.
I - Innes, R.T.A.
ITF - Falcon, I.T.
J - Jonckheere, R.
JC - Jacob, W.S.
JNS - Jones, G.L.
JOH - Johnson, E.L.
JOY - Joy, A.H.
JSP - Jessup, M.K.
KNP - Knipe, G.F.
KNT - Knott, G.
KR - Kruger, E.C.
KU - Kustner, F.
KUI - Kuiper, Gerard P.
L - Lewis, T.
LAB – Labeyrie, A. et al
LAL - Lalande, F. de
LAM - Lamont, J. von
LCL - Lacaille, N.L.
LDS – Luyten, W.J. (includes PM catalog)
LEO - Leonard, F.C.
LEP - Lepine, S.
LPM - Luyten p.m. catalog
LPO - La Plata Obs.
LUH - Luhman, K.L.
LUY - Luyten, W.J.
LV - Leavenworth, F.
MA - Madler, J.H.
MCA – McAlister, H.A.
MKT – Pan, X.P. et al
MLB - Milburn, W.
MLF - Muller, F.
MLL - Mitchell, S.A.
MLO - Melbourne Obs.
MLR - Muller, P.
MRL - Morel, P.
NI - Nicholson, M.P.
NZO - New Zealand Obs.
OL - Olivier, C.P.
OLE - Olevic, D.M.
PAN - Pannuzzio, R.
PLQ - Paloque, E.
POL - Pollock, J.A.
POP - Popovic, G.
POU - Pourteau, A.
PRO - Perth Obs.
PRZ - Przbyllok, E.
PTT - Pettitt, E.
PZ - Piazzi, G.
R - Russell, H.C.
RBT – Robertson, J.G. et al
RHD - Richaud
RMK - Rumker, C.
ROE - Roe, E.D.
RSS - Rousseau, J.M.
RST - Rossiter, R.A.
S - South, J.
SCJ - Schjellerup, H.
SE - Secchi, A.
SEE - See, T.J.
SEI - Scheiner, J.
SHJ - South & Herschel, J.
SHY – Shaya E. & Olling R.
SKF – Skiff, B.A.
SKI - Skinner, A.N.
SLR - Sellors, R.P.
SMW - Simonov, G.V.
ST - Stearns, C. L.
STF - Struve, F.G.W.
STFA - W. Struve supplemental catalog
STI - Stein, J.STN - Stone, O.
STT - Struve, Otto
SWR - J. Stock & H. Wroblewski
TAY - Taylor, P.H.TDS – Tycho Catalog part 1
TDT – Tycho Catalog part 2
TOK – Tokovinin, A.
TOR - Torino Obs.
TSN - various, The Astronomical Journal
UC – USNO Astrographic Catalog
VDK - Vanderdonck, J.
VOU - Voute, J.G.
VYS - Vyssotsky, A.N.
WAK - Walker, R.L.
WEI - Weisse, M.
WFC - Yale Observatory
WG - Wrigley, R.W.
WHC - Wilson, H.C.
WHE - Wood, H.E.
WNC - Winnecke, A.
WNO - Washington Naval Observatory
WOH - Wood, H.
WOR - Worley, C.E.
WRH - Wilson, R.H.

short period doubles

I started a new project I hope I will follow through the rest of my life.  I ran a search on SkyTools for binary pair with orbital periods of less than 60 years and separation of greater than 0.2" in northern constellations.  The result was around 150 pairs within grasp of my 20" scope.  Because the period is so short, I should be able to notice positional change within the next 10-20 years -- assuming I make careful sketches of the star fields and keep the records accessible.  One hazard is that some might be too close now, and may take several years before I can resolve.  Nevertheless, noticing change in the sky really excites me, and having just observed the Mercury transit has me thinking of both time and change.  I was able to record one such pair, A 2329, during last night's session.

Seeing was forecasted to be better than I had, 5-6/10 -- though observing over my rooftop was noticeably worse.  Transparency was middling to poor, with typical marine haze in the air, and some dewing.  My pointing accuracy over longer slews is rather poor -- I plan to do the super calibration later this winter once I have trimmed down some bushes and trees so I have the maximum view.  I remade my 8" mask and it worked well.  I observed from 9-11pm, when I needed to get to bed since it was a work night -- the laptop battery died at this point anyway.

STF 36: 20" 333x. =51 Psc. Bright white A and 3 detla mag B, wide. [This was on the short period list but I did not see this one. The short period pair is MCA 1 Aa,Ab, magnitudes 5.84 / 7.99. It was 0.3" at discovery in 1977, so it might've been a feasible pair in large aperture. But currently it is 0.12". The pairs I noticed are the more pedestrian Struves. This one will become splittable in a few years]
00h 32m 23.75s +06° 57' 19.6" P.A. 84 sep 27 mag 5.68,9.52 Sp B9.5V dist. 80.97 pc (264.12 l.y.)

STF 2947 AB: 8" 333x: Near equal and well split bright white stars.
22h 49m 00.68s +68° 34' 12.2" P.A. 56 sep 4.7 mag 6.91,7.02 Sp F4V dist. 63.69 pc (207.76 l.y.)

STF 2948: 8" 333x: Easy pair, white and slightly blue, 2 delta mag, ~2.5"
22h 49m 36.21s +66° 33' 13.8" P.A. 3 sep 2.6 mag 7.26,8.60 Sp B6Vn dist. 261.78 pc (853.93 l.y.)

STF 2950 AB: 8" 333x: Nice pair indeed. Bright yellow-white A and 2 delta mag B, clean split, ~2". May be third fainter much wider split (AC, 39.2" 11.05)
22h 51m 22.51s +61° 41' 47.9" P.A. 272.3 sep 1.13 mag 6.03,7.08 Sp G8III-IV dist. 72.73 pc (237.25 l.y.)

STF 2961 AB: 8" 333x: KZ Cep. Precisely equal pair, seems more than 2". Very nice.
22h 56m 30.92s +62° 52' 06.9" P.A. 349 sep 1.9 mag 8.48,8.61 Sp B0V

MLR 266 AB: 20" 333x: Tried with 8" at first but the faint B star apparent only at full aperture. A star turned a bright yellow-orange and the B star was an obvious steady bright star ~3". At 8" A's color is duller and I can only suspect the B star only after having first seen it at 20". There are other pairs in the system but at 15th mag are out of grasp of a red-zone back yard.
22h 56m 47.19s +62° 43' 37.6" P.A. 355 sep 2.9 mag 7.77,11.35 Sp O7n dist. 436.68 pc (1424.45 l.y.)

A 634 AB: 20" 333x: B star very faint even at full aperture, but can see it well with seeing, ~2". A is blue-white and much brighter with full aperture.
22h 56m 52.31s +59° 41' 27.4" P.A. 300 sep 2.1 mag 8.47,12.00 Sp A0

HJ 1838 AB: 8" 333x: Nice pair, more near equal, about a half delta mag, ~1.5" very nice
22h 58m 28.30s +67° 05' 16.9" P.A. 255 sep 1.5 mag 9.11,9.39 Sp G0 dist. 122.4 pc (399.27 l.y.)

KR 62 AB: 8" 333x: V711 Cep. Neat pair, wide, half delta mag, in the upper right corner of a Corvus asterism, [Eclipsing binary of Algol type, though I can't tell if the eclipsing star is the B star? Only one pair in WDS.  Further: http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/pdf/2000IBVS.4923....1G, says . "Since it is unlikely that independent intrinsic variations of the optical companion could match the eclipsing binary in such a selective way, real intrinsic light changes for the eclipsing binary system are highly probable. Observations did not allow to determine which of the visual components of GSC 4282 394 is the Algol-type variable, and it was not possible to deduce it from the Tycho observations either, which do not show the detected variability but a high scatter and spurious oscillations" -- so the AB pair is not eclipsing, but either component may be variable?]
23h 05m 15.30s +63° 23' 42.3" P.A. 325 sep 5.5 mag 9.55,9.87

HJ 1860 AB; 8" 333x: White with wide blue pair, about 1 delta mag
23h 13m 32.24s +62° 39' 43.8" P.A. 335 sep 7.4 mag 9.11,10.60 Sp F0

MLR 71 BC: 8" 333x: Very faint pair, need averted vision to see B star, well split.
23h 12m 42.99s +63° 16' 35.9" P.A. 220 sep 2.9 mag 9.71,10.00 Sp G5

J 859 AB 20" 333x: Elongated smudge at 8", need full 20" to cleanly see as nice sharp points, well separated ~2", equal magnitude
23h 12m 13.63s +62° 17' 53.6" P.A. 155 sep 1.9 mag 11.04,11.65

ES 149 AB: 8" 333x: Nice equal pair, well separated ~6"
23h 39m 56.79s +64° 18' 48.8" P.A. 122 sep 5.6 mag 8.95,9.47 Sp F8

AG 290 AB 8" 333x: Widely separated half delta mag pair
23h 11m 02.35s +65° 54' 39.5" P.A. 265 sep 14.7 mag 9.25,10.01 Sp F0

HU 993: 20" 333x: B star only resolves with full aperture to a sharp point, very clear, well separated ~2", 2 delta mag.
23h 01m 42.54s +67° 47' 43.0" P.A. 215 sep 2.1 mag 8.85,10.29 Sp F8 dist. 124.69 pc (406.74 l.y.)

A 789: 20" 333x: Tried at 8" but it was a smear, needed 20" to resolve into very clean yellowish stars, about a half delta mag, ~2"
23h 24m 21.55s +69° 17' 11.1" P.A. 85 sep 2.2 mag 9.10,9.48 Sp A2

STF 91 AB: 8" 333x: Well separated 1.5 delta mag, white stars
01h 07m 10.99s -01° 43' 55.6" P.A. 315 sep 4.3 mag 7.43,8.56 Sp F9V dist. 48.71 pc (158.89 l.y.)

HJ 633 AB: 8" 333x: 1 delta mag wide
01h 09m 10.45s -02° 53' 08.5" P.A. 143 sep 9.5 mag 9.64,10.59 Sp F8 dist. 92.68 pc (302.32 l.y.)

A 2329 AB: 20" 1067x: Split at 533x but used barlow to confirm the PA accurately since this is a short period pair. Nicely split orange stars, half delta mag. Seeing it now at nearly the furthest extent of its orbit, it will become more difficult with time.  The pair is a "mere" 55.91 lightyears away.
02h 27m 45.86s +04° 25' 55.9" P.A. 102.4 sep 0.53 mag 9.45,9.63 Sp K5 dist. 17.14 pc (55.91 l.y.)

transit of mercury

Yesterday morning was a unique event, the transit of Mercury across the sun.  It was to be half-way across by the time the sun rose in the Bay Area slightly before 7am PST.  A few weeks ago I booked a campsite at Fremont Peak expecting to camp out to stay above any possible marine layer fog.  But for a few days I had a lingering sore throat, so I didn't want to spend a night in the cold.  So, the plan changed where I would get up before 6am and check the sky: if fogged over, I'd drive to some nearby ridge (I planned Henry Coe State Park); if no fog we could observe from home.  We arranged with some friends to meet us at Henry Coe and go hiking afterward.  I readied everything the night before, cars gassed up and just waiting for direction.

As it turned out, there was no fog, so we were able to spend a pleasant morning at home.  The sun cleared Mission Peak it was shining down on the sidewalk and street a little after 7am.  Clara and I set-up the 70mm (actually 48mm with mask) refractor with solar projection funnel, and we could quickly see the tiny dot a little off center.  I moved the scope several times around the sidewalk and street since some distant trees were casting shadows as the sun rose higher.  I started making sketches and notes.

A little later the sun began to show in our back yard, so I moved the scope back there and set-up two more: my PST solar scope and Valerie's 6" f4 with full aperture white light filter.  The PST was freshly repaired with a new objective lens and filter, and I received it back from the manufacturer on Saturday, just in time.  It showed really nice views of prominences, of which there were several: fountains, fans, and spikes, a couple of arches, including one very bright one, and several broken arches.  The 6" showed Mercury as a sharp disk and was a very good view.  Surprisingly there were no sunspots.

Our friends came over during the mid-morning and we enjoyed the views.  It was fun to observe from home since people could break away and do other things, then come back a little later for an update on Mercury's progress.  I had to move the scopes around the yard a couple of times since the meridian tree was casting shadows. Fortunately there was always some area in the yard where we could set-up. Some of the sketches suffer from field rotation problems from moving the scopes, but you can clearly see the movement of Mercury over time.

Toward the end of the transit Mercury could be seen to moved almost real time -- the sun's limb was closer to it and acted as a frame of reference.  As it started to make third contact we could see the little circular nibble Mercury made.  It was best in the 6" but I could even see it on the 70mm's projection screen.  I had Clara stay at the eyepiece of the 6" to watch Mercury finish its transit, since I wanted her to see such an amazing event and remember it.  I asked her to promise to wheel me out of the nursing home to see the next North American Mercury transit thirty years from now, the morning of 7 May 2049.  This one will also be about halfway over when the sun rises in the west, so if we're still here & the weather is clear the events of the day should unfold the same way they did yesterday.

4 november 2019

Transparency was poor last night, with some light dew and lingering smoke haze.  But seeing was pretty good, about 7/10, with moments of better.  So while I could not go after faint pairs, I could get some very close pairs, which is always exciting.  I viewed the moon after dinner in the binoviewer, then started in with doubles after 9pm.  I adjusted the offset from GMT in the Argo, and that fixed the pointing error I had the night before.  However my laptop's clock did not automatically adjust to daylight savings, and I turned in an hour earlier than I wanted to, thinking it was time for bed!

STI 1437 AB: 8" 533x: Obvious pair, wide, ~15" or so, one delta mag [not physical]
00h 49m 32.95s +55° 33' 54.4" P.A. 299 sep 11.1 mag 9.73,10.98 Sp A0

BU 232 AB: 8" 533x: Nice, well split, near equal. Part of a triple, the next one much wider in same PA and two delta mag. [AB-C is 10.06 24.5"]
00h 50m 25.10s +50° 37' 49.6" P.A. 256.4 sep 0.85 mag 8.46,8.79 Sp F5 dist. 101.11 pc (329.82 l.y.)

MLR 27: 20" 1067x: ! Split with seeing, tremulous in turbulence but does split when settled. Noticeable delta mag.
00h 51m 10.71s +60° 18' 54.2" P.A. 212 sep 0.5 mag 10.23,10.16 Sp F5

BU 1 AB: 20" 533x: L shape asterism and the short end tip star has a faint close star, AB. There's a zigzag of four faint stars making an arc beyond this short L. Given this is really an open cluster this is not surprising. [not physical]
00h 52m 49.22s +56° 37' 39.5" P.A. 83 sep 1.5 mag 8.58,9.33 Sp O6.5V dist. 3030.3 pc (9884.84 l.y.)

STI 1460: 20" 533x: B is a faint star, pretty wide, unremarkable [not physical]
00h 52m 55.81s +55° 20' 16.9" P.A. 92 sep 9.6 mag 9.20,12.90 Sp A5 dist. 578.03 pc (1885.53 l.y.)

STF 70 AB: 20" 533x: Yellow-white A and widely separated B, a small point, 3 delta mag
00h 53m 47.53s +52° 41' 21.6" P.A. 247 sep 8.1 mag 6.33,9.49 Sp A0 dist. 88.42 pc (288.43 l.y.)

HU 1018 AB: 20" 533x: Excellent pair, near equal, ~1", very fine.
00h 54m 14.98s +51° 08' 12.0" P.A. 61 sep 0.9 mag 9.88,10.27 Sp K0 dist. 76.86 pc (250.72 l.y.)

A 1258 AB: 20" 1067x: ! Yes! I got it split, what a sight! Suspected at 533x. Reddish A, 1 delta mag brighter than blue B. Perfect star images. Nice color pair.
00h 54m 23.37s +54° 31' 41.0" P.A. 202 sep 0.6 mag 9.73,9.90 Sp G0

HU 802: 20" 1067x: ! Hairline split to overlapping, 1 delta mag, super fine
00h 54m 53.84s +49° 24' 18.9" P.A. 222 sep 0.4 mag 7.81,10.01 Sp A0 dist. 364.96 pc (1190.5 l.y.)

TDS1665 AB: 20" 1067x: ! Can tell is double, elongated, and I got one split in ten seconds, seeing needs to be perfect.
00h 55m 08.24s +57° 13' 30.8" P.A. 30 sep 0.5 mag 10.47,10.54

TDS1667 AB: 20" 533x: Pretty well split once it resolves out of the haze into two near equal points.
00h 55m 25.53s +59° 50' 59.9" P.A. 296 sep 0.6 mag 10.59,10.63

ES 405 AB: 20" 533x: Pretty, near equal white stars, wide separation
00h 55m 41.89s +57° 47' 06.1" P.A. 117 sep 4.4 mag 10.24,10.36

TDS1670 AB: 20" 1067x: ! Rather wide, well split with seeing, bluish stars due to faintness. Very nice pair.
00h 55m 57.82s +58° 32' 38.9" P.A. 26 sep 0.7 mag 11.58,11.61

HLD 4: 20" 533x: Yellowish stars, nicely split, a near equal. [this pair is widening, will get a little easier, was 1" at discovery in 1881 -- Holden, Lick director.]
00h 57m 35.79s +54° 23' 44.8" P.A. 52.7 sep 0.45 mag 9.00,9.50 Sp G0

3 November 2019

With daylight savings time I started to observe shortly before dinner, this time the quarter moon.  Seeing was quite good, and I was pleased that the cheap 25mm Meade eyepieces I used in the binoviewer.  It was a trick to find the right eye position but once there the contrast was quite good.  There was so much amazing detail to be seen.

After evening chores, I went out again at 9pm.  My computer needed to do an update so in the meantime I slewed over to BU 1, a lovely "L" set of stars with a close pair at the tip of the small L.  There was an arc of three faint stars above it, which disappeared when I put the 8" mask on.  I didn't need the mask however since I was getting perfect airy disks at full aperture.

Once the PC was working, I had a lot of trouble slewing to targets.  As I think about it now, I likely need to reset the Argo's clock due to daylight savings time.  It was frustrating, since seeing was so good (though transparency is still hurt with wildfire smoke.

I more or less gave up and decided to have a look at Uranus, which was just clearing the meridian tree.  I needed to slew around a bit to find it, but it really looked great.  At 333x it was a beautiful light blue orb, and I could see some faint small dark swirls in the disk, and one side of it had a buff color to it.  I could also see two faint moons, which disappeared with the 8" mask.

Seeing is to be good again tonight, but there is still a lot of smoke haze in the air.  Hope it will still be a good night.

30 october 2019

The sky the last few nights have been obscured by smoke from the Kincaid Fire, and the winds which were driving it. During the worst it seemed like a dry hurricane: murky orange sky with wind and leaves and falling branches. Last night was an improvement, mostly calm at ground level, clear-ish, but upper level seeing was poor and the sky was still compromised with smoke haze. I only used the 8" mask, and even then had to keep the magnifications low (for me), 121x & 205x. Ordinarily I would just pack it in on such a poor night, but instead I pointed the scope to what seemed the darkest sky above, in eastern Cygnus, and generated a list of stars with >15" separation. Somehow some stars with less than this were included. In any case I had a good enough session. It was cut short after an hour because the power to the controller and DSC was interrupted twice, and since I didn't have batteries in the Argo I lost my alignment. Maybe the powered ground board contacts had debris or something from sitting too long, so I spun the scope around in azimuth a couple of times to free it up.

STF 2758 AB: 8" 121x:61 Cyg. Nice near equal wide orange pair, bright [18 stars in system -- if so should be an OC]
21h 06m 53.95s +38° 44' 57.9" P.A. 152.6 sep 31.78 mag 5.20,6.05 Sp K5V+K7V dist. 3.49 pc (11.38 l.y.)

STF 2762 AB: 8" 121x: V389 Cyg. A is white, quite bloated in this poor seeing night, can see three delta mag tan color B, very close split, need seeing to settle.
21h 08m 38.87s +30° 12' 20.5" P.A. 303 sep 3.4 mag 5.70,8.10 Sp B9V dist. 115.74 pc (377.54 l.y.)

SEI 1404 AB: 8" 121x: Attractive, if faint, pair, near equal, wide.
21h 06m 31.68s +36° 44' 32.6" P.A. 308 sep 24 mag 10.50,10.80

STF 2760 AB: 8" 121x: Nice pair, well split, ~4", a little more than 1 delta mag, palin white A and yellowish B. [not physical]
21h 06m 46.78s +34° 07' 56.2" P.A. 33 sep 5.3 mag 7.90,8.74 Sp A4III dist. 137.17 pc (447.45 l.y.)

SEI 1407 AB: 8" 121x: White and 3x fainter B, wide, probably 10" or more, pretty field [not physical. CTT 16 AC is 11.30 29.3" not noticed as part of the system.]
21h 07m 12.26s +36° 57' 00.6" P.A. 274 sep 13.8 mag 8.18,10.75 Sp A0 dist. 1492.54 pc (4868.67 l.y.)

ES 2060 AB: 8" 121x: Very faint, need averted vision to bring out the B star clearly, very close ~4" separation. [not physical].
21h 07m 34.85s +37° 59' 45.6" P.A. 249 sep 5.7 mag 11.51,11.10

S 779: 8" 121x: Very wide 2 delta mag, how think this is binary? [not physical]
21h 09m 08.32s +38° 43' 45.1" P.A. 9 sep 110.5 mag 7.61,9.57 Sp K2 dist. 537.63 pc (1753.75 l.y.)

SEI 1422 AB: 8" 121x: Pretty white A and orange B, 3 delta mag, well separated. [not physical]
21h 09m 52.66s +36° 59' 10.2" P.A. 330 sep 20.5 mag 8.98,10.70 Sp F8

HU 1309 AB: 8" 205x: ! Suspected at 121x, moved up to 205x to see the tremulous B star very faint next to A, very close, good view with seeing.
21h 10m 10.16s +37° 25' 46.7" P.A. 171 sep 3 mag 10.30,11.30

SEI 1429 AB: 8" 205x: Wide, 1 delta mag, unremarkable
21h 10m 27.38s +38° 51' 11.7" P.A. 351 sep 25.1 mag 9.86,11.01 Sp A2

SEI 1425 AB: 8" 205x: Nice pair, wide, more than 1 delta mag. Pretty
21h 10m 27.03s +32° 15' 28.2" P.A. 34 sep 21.4 mag 9.34,11.76 Sp G5

STT 431 AB: 8" 205x: ! Near equal yellow-white stars ~3" or a little less, nice!
21h 11m 30.87s +41° 14' 28.7" P.A. 126 sep 2.6 mag 8.80,8.99 Sp F8 dist. 102.88 pc (335.59 l.y.)

SEI 1438 AB: 8" 205x: Wide about two delta mag. Another double in field, wide near equal.
21h 11m 47.71s +32° 11' 04.0" P.A. 93 sep 22.5 mag 9.64,11.90

HAU 27 AB: 8" 205x: Blue-white stars, 3 delta mag, nice star field
21h 11m 48.53s +29° 42' 42.1" P.A. 297 sep 50 mag 6.81,10.12 Sp B5III dist. 277.01 pc (903.61 l.y.)

BUP 227 AB: 8" 205x: Zeta Cyg. Could b any number of faint wide stars about. [7 star system, not physical.]
21h 12m 56.19s +30° 13' 36.9" P.A. 205 sep 65.2 mag 3.30,11.70 Sp G8III dist. 43.88 pc (143.14 l.y.)

21 october 2019

Last night's seeing was forecast to be pretty good, but turned out it was ok from 9pm to 10pm but then it was lost. Continued to be plagued with poor transparency, with a low light fog in the air. Tried my best, but only observed for ninety minutes. All the same, a couple of nice finds.

Also I really need to do my Super Calibration on the Argo. I find myself passing over fainter pairs so I could land on a brighter star, since I know I need to adjust my slew slightly in order to find the target star. If my pointing accuracy would reliably land a target in my tiny 0.15* FOV, then I would have confidence to slew to non-obvious and faint pairs...

STT 454 AB: 20" 533x: Bright white A and about 3 delta mag bluish B, pair, ~7"
21h 56m 04.91s +24° 20' 23.6" P.A. 278 sep 7.4 mag 7.97,10.04 Sp A0 dist. 271.74 pc (886.42 l.y.)

A 303 AB: 20" 533x: ! Slightly orange A star and very faint blue B, ~4", just seen direct vision. Very nice.
21h 55m 29.91s +27° 23' 35.6" P.A. 52 sep 2.3 mag 9.22,11.63 Sp G5 dist. 207.47 pc (676.77 l.y.)

ES 526 AB: 20" 533x: Light orange A star and B noticed with averted vison, flashes out clearly. Suspected with direct vision but not steady. Pretty wide ~7"
21h 56m 32.33s +26° 13' 04.1" P.A. 95 sep 9.6 mag 9.25,13.40 Sp K7

TDT3270 AB: 20" 1067x: Poor transparency hurting me, but in the elongated haze two separate points flash momentarily, very brief and very small, hairline.
21h 58m 43.85s +22° 57' 57.9" P.A. 270 sep 0.5 mag 10.81,10.87

J 2365 AB: 20" 533x: Pretty, near equal white stars ~6".
22h 10m 48.95s +21° 51' 18.9" P.A. 261 sep 5.5 mag 11.52,11.50

HO 294 AB: 20" 533x: ! When I first viewed the seeing was very rough, but after a couple of minutes it settled down so I could see a beautiful orange-yellow star resolved with a very faint reddish B ~3", nice hard points.
22h 37m 35.20s +27° 26' 22.8" P.A. 59 sep 1.9 mag 8.20,10.98 Sp F6V dist. 113.25 pc (369.42 l.y.)

TDT3670 AB, 20" 533x: Faint pair less than half delta mag, ~3"
22h 42m 48.92s +13° 30' 52.4" P.A. 309 sep 2.3 mag 11.44,11.80

STF 2941 AB: 20" 533x: Very pretty yellow and blue stars, ~3 delta mag, wide [not physical]
22h 45m 58.41s +19° 15' 00.9" P.A. 258 sep 14.8 mag 7.62,10.36 Sp K0

BRT2509 AB: 20" 533x: Near equal faint pair, ~5". Nice.
22h 49m 52.44s +19° 20' 10.3" P.A. 208 sep 4.5 mag 10.90,11.10

TDT 3774 AB: 20" 1067x: Very moderately elongated, but marginal since seeing is not holding up
22h 54m 08.44s +22° 36' 21.9" P.A. 281 sep 0.4 mag 9.65,9.82 Sp K2

20 october 2019

Observed last night with the 20" from about 8:30pm to 11:30pm. It gets dark enough now early that I can have good solid times to observe. Transparency was on the low end as seems to be typical now. Seeing started off pretty decent at 7/10 but actually improved to 8-9/10 after 10:15pm or so, and I was able to capture some pretty close pairs. A satisfying session, and I was able to use full aperture throughout. Very unfortunately I needed to wrap up since it was a work night; someday I'll not have to.

HJ 938 AB: 20" 333x: Orange star and widely separated B, only noticed with averted vision, then can briefly hold direct. [not physical]
21h 36m 25.16s +07° 52' 58.6" P.A. 123 sep 11.4 mag 7.80,11.80 Sp K2 dist. 142.45 pc (464.67 l.y.)

STT 443 AB: 20" 333x: Nice near equal pair, very light orange color stars, wide separation
21h 37m 37.05s +06° 42' 36.1" P.A. 349 sep 8.3 mag 9.47,9.67 Sp K2

ROE 128 AB: 20" 533x: Noticed as double @ 333x, but increased magnification to 533x for definitive split. Faint pair, one edge of direct vision for tonight's poor transparency, very close, about one delta mag, definite clean split >1"
21h 39m 07.47s +12° 51' 43.7" P.A. 264 sep 1.4 mag 10.50,10.80

AG 419 AB: 20" 533x: Light orange pair, about half delta mag and 5", rather pretty
21h 39m 55.27s +14° 27' 05.2" P.A. 223 sep 3.8 mag 9.70,10.50 Sp F8

HO 465 AB: 20" 533x: A is a pretty white-yellow star and the B and C pair are half delta mag, a little wide, though the two together are close. A is certainly not round with a PA slightly off perpendicular to the B and C position angle. viewed at twenty, five and barlow.
21h 46m 28.79s +22° 10' 28.1" P.A. 247 sep 44.7 mag 7.09,11.50 Sp A7IV dist. 167.22 pc (545.47 l.y.)

HDS 3101 Aa,Ab: 20" 1067x: A is certainly not round with a PA slightly off perpendicular to the B and C position angle.
21h 46m 28.79s +22° 10' 28.1" P.A. 18 sep 0.2 mag 7.24,9.59 Sp A7IV dist. 167.22 pc (545.47 l.y.)

BRT 2500 AB: 20" 533x: Easy pair, half delta mag, ~5" [not physical]
21h 48m 45.97s +21° 43' 36.8" P.A. 243 sep 4.6 mag 11.20,11.70

COU 14 AB: 20" 1067x: = 13 Peg. Out of round to notched, one fainter than the other, jittery but there. Used apodizing mask to settle diffraction.
21h 50m 08.64s +17° 17' 09.4" P.A. 207.8 sep 0.21 mag 5.74,6.94 Sp F2III-IV dist. 33.42 pc (109.02 l.y.)

WSI 24 AB: 20" 533x: Easy pair, wide, about one delta mag, one light orange other light blue color
21h 51m 22.68s +19° 15' 58.9" P.A. 24 sep 14.2 mag 10.60,10.90

BRT 2501 AB: 20" 533x: Two white stars ~5" and half delta mag [not physical]
21h 51m 37.79s +21° 34' 28.5" P.A. 324 sep 5.2 mag 10.60,10.70

HO 173 AB: 20" 533x: ! Very fine pair, almost one delta mag, very close but nicely split, <1", quite a sight
21h 55m 17.17s +18° 43' 11.7" P.A. 73 sep 0.9 mag 10.34,10.63

STT 452 AB: 20" 533x: ! Noticed split immediately, white stars, half delta mag, very cool split.
21h 55m 40.01s +07° 15' 13.9" P.A. 177 sep 0.8 mag 9.04,9.63 Sp F8 dist. 189.04 pc (616.65 l.y.)

STF 2848 AB: 20" 533x: Wide, bright white stars, half delta mag, ~10"
21h 58m 01.45s +05° 56' 25.3" P.A. 57 sep 10.9 mag 7.21,7.73 Sp Am+F2V dist. 625 pc (2038.75 l.y.)

A 304 AB: 20" 533x: ! Most definite clean split of one delta mag stars, very nice disks
21h 58m 30.37s +27° 24' 34.6" P.A. 131 sep 0.6 mag 9.52,9.33 Sp A2

STF 2850: 20" 533x: = OU Peg. ! Very beautiful pair, rich orange and blue, well separated, four or five delta mag.
21h 59m 49.60s +23° 56' 27.4" P.A. 264 sep 2.8 mag 7.00,11.00 Sp M5 dist. 621.12 pc (2026.09 l.y.)

HO 610 AB: 20" 533x: ! Superfine, split nicely, ~0.7", half delta mag. [three other wider >12th mag pairs not seen]
22h 02m 00.73s +26° 50' 46.6" P.A. 240 sep 0.7 mag 10.07,10.25 Sp G0

BRT 2840 AB: 20" 533x: Faint, about one delta mag, ~2", near another near equal pair
22h 06m 08.43s +20° 33' 57.6" P.A. 316 sep 2.4 mag 10.00,10.70

COU 136 AB: 20" 1067x: ! Awesome hairline at 533x, nice clean split at 1067x. The stars are split the diffraction patters merge at the boarders, perfect images. Appears more near equal than SkyTools data suggests.
22h 10m 02.22s +23° 07' 33.0" P.A. 17.1 sep 0.45 mag 9.20,7.56 Sp F6IV dist. 93.81 pc (306.01 l.y.)

CHR 106 AB: 20" 533x: SkyTools does not give a magnitude for the 0.5" paring, and none visible with 533x (with apodizing mask). suspect some error in data or maybe a k band [WDS note says "X Dubious double]
22h 10m 18.96s +19° 36' 59.6" P.A. 9 sep 0.5 mag 6.18, Sp G0V dist. 59.24 pc (193.24 l.y.)

EGG 4 AB: 20" 533x: Easy split, noticed right away, a bit more near equal magnitudes than SkyTools data.
22h 10m 57.51s +24° 29' 19.0" P.A. 150 sep 0.7 mag 9.48,9.37 Sp F7Vwe dist. 154.32 pc (503.39 l.y.)

MLB 723 AB: 20" 533x: Easy, if a bit faint; ~2" and one delta mag
22h 12m 00.90s +25° 46' 28.7" P.A. 339 sep 2.3 mag 10.00,10.50

HJ 958 AB: 20" 533x: Pretty one delta mag pair, wide separation. [High proper motion star]
22h 13m 09.96s +21° 47' 40.6" P.A. 233 sep 5.8 mag 9.89,10.64 Sp F8+G5

AG 281 AB: 20" 533x: Easy 1.5 delta mag, ~<3", slightly bluish stars
22h 14m 49.53s +21° 56' 59.3" P.A. 19 sep 2.7 mag 9.42,10.45 Sp F2 dist. 166.39 pc (542.76 l.y.)

COU 138 AB: 20" 533x: ! Wonderful faint pair, ~2" and two delta mag, very fine. Almost need averted vision but not quite.
22h 15m 16.25s +23° 53' 39.5" P.A. 37 sep 1.5 mag 11.44,11.90

TDT 3436 AB: 20" 1067x: Seems to stretch to N-S elongation but very marginal
22h 16m 17.12s +25° 46' 35.2" P.A. 186 sep 0.5 mag 10.62,10.79

HU 383 AB: 20" 1067x: ! Suspected split with 533x, but no question of split at 1067x, very nice split near equal stars.
22h 19m 36.43s +21° 07' 00.6" P.A. 27 sep 0.4 mag 9.91,10.07 Sp F5

13 october 2019

Last night had very poor conditions: 4/10 seeing and 2/5 transparency, with a just past full moon lighting it up so the whole sky was milky white. My limiting magnitude through the 8" mask was a mere 9th magnitude! But I had nothing better to do except make the most of it. It was cold, but no dew (I heard on the radio the air is 0% humidity!); I observed for an hour and a half. I was a bit tired, since I took delivery of our winter's supply of wood and split and stacked it in the afternoon.

BU 65 AB 8" 533x: = 13 Del. Suspected at 333x, went up to 533x. The B star seems much fainter than SkyTools data; about 3 delta mag, and seen only when seeing is still as a blue point just outside first diffraction. ~1.5"
20h 47m 48.33s +06° 00' 29.5" P.A. 199 sep 1.5 mag 5.64,8.24 Sp A0V dist. 131.41 pc (428.66 l.y.)

HJ 1577 AB: 8" 533x: Can easily see the wide split and seems a bit more than 1 delta mag
20h 49m 54.46s +12° 55' 08.1" P.A. 246 sep 9.4 mag 8.91,9.40 Sp G0

STF 2730 AB 8" 533x: Near equal, fairly wide, white stars ~4"
20h 51m 03.77s +06° 23' 14.1" P.A. 334 sep 3.4 mag 8.43,8.57 Sp K1III

A 613 AB: 8" 533x: Getting the briefest hairline split, but this one is very marginal seeing is a problem
20h 51m 54.49s +05° 44' 29.5" P.A. 316.8 sep 0.6 mag 9.10,9.03 Sp F5

BAL 2548 AB: 8" 533x: Easy to pick out ~8" wide, near equal white stars
20h 53m 40.87s +03° 35' 38.5" P.A. 258 sep 7.5 mag 9.90,10.85 Sp G5

STF 2736 AB 8" 533x: Pretty wide, ~5", 1.5 delta mag, very light orange and blue
20h 56m 43.74s +12° 59' 33.8" P.A. 219 sep 5.3 mag 8.34,9.36 Sp F2 dist. 294.99 pc (962.26 l.y.)

STF 2738 AB: 8" 533x: Easy wide pair, A is yellowish, B white, wide, 1 delta mag. [not physical]
20h 58m 32.23s +16° 26' 12.2" P.A. 254 sep 15 mag 7.51,8.57 Sp F5V+A0 dist. 100.4 pc (327.5 l.y.)

STF 2797 AB 8" 533x: = KP Peg. Light yellow A and ~4", 1.5 delta mag orange B
21h 26m 41.14s +13° 41' 17.8" P.A. 217 sep 3.5 mag 7.37,8.83 Sp A2V dist. 221.73 pc (723.28 l.y.)

STF 2799 AB: 8" 533x: Very nice pair, only slightly unequal, ~3"
21h 28m 52.79s +11° 05' 05.2" P.A. 257.7 sep 1.89 mag 7.37,7.44 Sp F4V dist. 105.04 pc (342.64 l.y.)

BU 74 AB: 8" 533x: Light orange A star with a very, very faint B, barely split, elongated with averted vision. Can split only when seeing settles at the same time I'm flashing averted vision.
21h 35m 11.99s +21° 24' 14.9" P.A. 338 sep 1 mag 7.45,9.05 Sp F5V dist. 85.18 pc (277.86 l.y.)

STF 2818 AB 8" 533x: Very wide two delta mag. meh. [Need to try this again, Aa-Ab is LBU 2, 9.5 & 0.9"]
21h 41m 59.91s +18° 56' 19.7" P.A. 24 sep 26.8 mag 7.38,10.24 Sp G7III dist. 179.86 pc (586.7 l.y.)

STF 2824 AB-C: 8" 533x: = Kappa Peg Pretty pale yellow A star, bright, with 6 delta mag B wide and clean, small blue dot no diffraction spikes [Did not see BU 989 AB, 5.04 0.2"]
21h 44m 38.70s +25° 38' 42.0" P.A. 288 sep 14.5 mag 4.13,10.80 Sp F5IV dist. 34.22 pc (111.63 l.y.)

AG 276 AB: 8" 533x: A bit hazy but no question, ~2", 1 delta mag, light blue [not physical]
21h 45m 30.71s +21° 56' 23.8" P.A. 2 sep 2 mag 9.62,9.99 Sp F8

STF 2834 AB: 8" 533x: Can see the B star with averted vision at 4" sep but cannot get it with direct vision.
21h 51m 40.18s +19° 18' 25.0" P.A. 298 sep 4.2 mag 6.93,9.89 Sp F5IV dist. 91.91 pc (299.81 l.y.)

BU 75 AB: 8" 533x: With patience for poor conditions and some critical focus I get a good clean split, slightly unequal
21h 55m 31.42s +10° 52' 49.5" P.A. 26.4 sep 1.09 mag 8.40,8.56 Sp G5 dist. 47.78 pc (155.86 l.y.)

STF 2868 AB: 8: 533x: Very brief moment of clean split with seeing, slightly unequal.
22h 09m 22.01s +22° 32' 46.6" P.A. 352 sep 1.1 mag 8.87,9.38 Sp F4III dist. 237.53 pc (774.82 l.y.)

STF 2878 AB 8" 533x: Nice pair, ~1.5", about 1 delta mag
22h 14m 29.18s +07° 58' 34.2" P.A. 116 sep 1.6 mag 6.94,8.11 Sp B9IV dist. 224.22 pc (731.41 l.y.)

HJ 962 AB 8" 533x: = 30 Peg White and blue stars about five delta mag, wide separation
22h 20m 27.56s +05° 47' 22.2" P.A. 17 sep 6.4 mag 5.36,11.50 Sp B5IV dist. 390.63 pc (1274.24 l.y.)

STF 2915 AB 8" 533x: Easy wide slightly unequal pair
22h 32m 33.93s +07° 25' 05.5" P.A. 125 sep 15.2 mag 9.46,9.52 Sp F6IV+F4IV dist. 83.06 pc (270.94 l.y.)

STF 2920 AB 8" 533x: Easy, wide, about 2 delta mag, blue-white stars
22h 34m 31.58s +04° 13' 20.6" P.A. 144 sep 13.7 mag 7.55,8.85 Sp B9.5V dist. 89.13 pc (290.74 l.y.)

STF 2958 AB: 8" 533x: White A and fairly faint bluish B, 3 detla mag ~4".
22h 56m 51.47s +11° 50' 54.0" P.A. 15 sep 4 mag 6.63,9.09 Sp A3Vs dist. 98.81 pc (322.32 l.y.)

9 october 2019

The night was nearly a total bust. Very poor seeing and bad transparency from a marine haze. There was not much ground wind but seems the atmosphere above was very turbulent, likely the winds which caused PG&E to shut off power for much of Northern California to forestall wildfires. I had a few satisfying observations of a double stars. There was a lot I skipped over since I couldn't even satisfactorily observe 9th magnitude stars, with a nearly full moon up. I tried the moon at the end but backed off magnification all the way to 87x, and basically looked at the ray patterns with an orange filter. The view is still hurt by poor transparency; don't let anyone fool you that transparency doesn't matter with the moon, or anything else.

STF 2583 AB Pi Aql 8" 205x Pretty yellow-orange A and a little more than 1 delta mag pale blue B, ~1", yet neatly separated.
19h 48m 42.05s +11° 48' 57.3" P.A. 106 sep 1.4 mag 6.34,6.75 Sp A3V+F9III dist. 157.73 pc (514.52 l.y.)

STF 2587 AB 8" 205x" Bright orange A star and faint bluish grey B which appears when seeing stills a fine point, ~4.5" [not physical]
19h 51m 26.83s +04° 05' 19.1" P.A. 99 sep 5 mag 6.71,9.42 Sp A5V+K2III dist. 763.36 pc (2490.08 l.y.)

V1466 Aql = 19523+1021AB 8" 205x: Nice white star with faint but steadily seen wide B. Nice pair

A 1660 AB-C: 8" 333x: Too tough for this night. Suspect with 205x, @ 333x I have strong sense of elongation but its all a haze, seeing not allow higher magnification. [AB is 0.2"! Very much worth trying with the 20" HD 354044
19h 52m 53.17s +14° 25' 07.7" P.A. 203 sep 0.7 mag 10.24,10.32 Sp F2

A 1663 AB: 8" 333x: Clean split, equal, can see disks with seeing. best seeing of the night
19h 57m 34.28s +15° 24' 21.5" P.A. 237 sep 1.3 mag 8.89,9.25 Sp F5

STF 2644 AB: 8" 333x: Close white stars, near equal, ~2.5"
20h 12m 35.09s +00° 52' 00.2" P.A. 206 sep 2.6 mag 6.92,7.06 Sp B9p dist. 180.51 pc (588.82 l.y.)

5 october 2019

Last night's seeing started out mediocre, so I used the 8" mask. After an hour or so it improved so I went full aperture. Despite a quarter moon and the usual marine haze, I made some really fine observations, which was great. Long session, too, from 9pm lasting until 12:30am. I could have kept going through the tiredness but needed to get up a little early the next morning. I dropped my barlow during the night, and it made a distressing clatter when it hit the edge of the telescope's concrete pad, but seems ok, fortunately. Cloudy tonight so I can find time to write these up:

A 2787 AB: 8" 333x: Seeing disappointingly bad, and transparency too... This one seen right away, 1 delta mag and about 4". Nice stars. [not physical]

19h 35m 47.31s +23° 33' 50.1" P.A. 111 sep 3.9 mag 9.90,11.40 Sp A0

STF 2548 AB: 8" 333x: Obvious pair, 1.5 delta mag ~10".

19h 36m 28.51s +25° 00' 04.4" P.A. 100 sep 9.4 mag 8.47,9.85 Sp A1V

STF 2551 AB: 8" 333x: Half delta mag, about 7", may be part of triple with very wide 1 more magnitude fainter C about 60 degrees away from B.

19h 37m 23.23s +22° 48' 51.0" P.A. 42 sep 6.8 mag 9.69,10.53 Sp F5

BRT 198: 8" 333x: Nice picked out if field between two other stars, middle of a string. B can be seen direct but best with some indirect vision. 1.5 delta mag, wide sept about 3"

19h 40m 06.65s +25° 15' 33.7" P.A. 154 sep 5.1 mag 10.19,11.60 Sp A2

A 272 AB: 8" 333x: ! Wow, I get the split, very close but split, obvious difference in magnitude, about 1 delta mag. Less than 1" sep. Impressed i could get it [CD is 15th mag and 1"!]

19h 40m 09.48s +26° 11' 23.4" P.A. 193 sep 1.3 mag 9.77,10.45 Sp A0

A 166 AB: 8" 333x: Close pair, 1/2 delta mag, elongates and splits with seeing. nice at this magnification.

19h 40m 10.51s +23° 30' 43.1" P.A. 241 sep 0.9 mag 9.24,9.54 Sp F2

A 2788 AB: 8" 533x: Elongated is the best I can get

19h 40m 19.26s +22° 50' 11.0" P.A. 328 sep 1.3 mag 9.79,10.90 Sp F2

STF 2577 AB: 8" 333x: Wide, one and half delta mag, light orange and blue stars 

19h 45m 12.27s +20° 54' 50.3" P.A. 262 sep 6 mag 8.43,9.56 Sp K0

DOO 11 AB: 8" 533x: Pretty pair of blue stars, one delta mag, 3" sep. Very nice! [not physical]

19h 48m 21.40s +24° 52' 56.8" P.A. 281 sep 2.8 mag 9.98,10.87 Sp K7

STF 2586 AB: 8" 533x: White and light blue, wide ~5", 1.5 delta mag 

19h 48m 34.30s +24° 57' 43.9" P.A. 226 sep 3.8 mag 7.56,9.28 Sp B8V dist. 358.42 pc (1169.17 l.y.)

KU 123 AB: Wide pair, one delta mag, bluish color [not physical] 

19h 48m 42.71s +25° 48' 28.4" P.A. 298 sep 21.6 mag 9.40,11.02 Sp M0

STF 2861 AB: 8" 533x: Pretty wide, magnitude is about half delta mag, not the full 1 delta mag as in SkyTools

22h 06m 01.25s +20° 48' 12.4" P.A. 221 sep 7.1 mag 8.14,8.64 Sp A4V dist. 187.62 pc (612.02 l.y.)

BRT 2527 AB: 8" 553x: Faint, pretty wide one delta mag bluish stars 

22h 10m 26.91s +19° 24' 34.8" P.A. 11 sep 5.6 mag 9.40,11.40 Sp A2

STF 2908 AB: 8: 533x: Yellow-orange and blue stars, wide, two delta mag 

22h 28m 11.55s +17° 15' 47.9" P.A. 114 sep 9 mag 7.74,9.68 Sp G9III dist. 462.96 pc (1510.18 l.y.)

STF 2910 AB: 20" 533x: White stars, one tinged with yellow the other orange, 1 delta mag, wide.

22h 28m 13.25s +23° 31' 57.2" P.A. 332 sep 5.8 mag 9.05,9.67 Sp K0IV dist. 51.71 pc (168.68 l.y.)

HO 475 AB: 20" 533x: Great! two plus one it must be. Tight near equal very well split, ~1", and another star about 1.5 fainter, rather wide about ten (AC).

22h 32m 45.51s +26° 24' 32.7" P.A. 306 sep 1.1 mag 9.34,9.62 Sp F5

COU 141 AB: 20" 533x Faint pair nicely split plenty of space. More near equal than one delta mag as in Sky Tools.

22h 34m 23.57s +25° 13' 58.4" P.A. 207 sep 1.5 mag 10.00,10.00

HU 982 AB: 20" 1067x: Persistent elongation at 533x and with barlow at 1067x. No resolution through, maybe an instant of notching 

22h 35m 12.10s +14° 36' 37.9" P.A. 219 sep 0.6 mag 7.81,9.40 Sp K2 dist. 347.22 pc (1132.63 l.y.)

STF 2934 AB: 20" 533x: 1.5 delta mag, well split, ~1.5", bluish white stars 

22h 41m 51.68s +21° 25' 53.0" P.A. 52.8 sep 1.38 mag 8.64,9.55 Sp G0 dist. 88.11 pc (287.41 l.y.)

TDT3676 AB: 20" 533x: Very faint, B on edge of direct vision, tightens up with critical focus as a blue dot, ~2.5" from A. 

22h 43m 13.03s +19° 12' 55.1" P.A. 349 sep 2 mag 10.01,11.61

HJ 301 AB: 20" 553x: Xi Peg. Picked out very faint B right away, a point in the glow but not the glare of the A star, and not in diffraction splike either.

22h 46m 41.58s +12° 10' 22.4" P.A. 94 sep 11.1 mag 4.20,12.40 Sp F7V+M2V dist. 16.3 pc (53.17 l.y.)

HU 985 AB: 20" 533x: ! Wow I got it! Light orange star and a very faint star just outside first diffraction, very subtle and tough

22h 47m 54.00s +12° 58' 36.2" P.A. 134.3 sep 0.66 mag 9.60,9.88 Sp G5

TDT3712 AB: 20" 533x: Faint, near equal, ~2". Very fine 

22h 48m 11.13s +18° 58' 10.3" P.A. 168 sep 1.8 mag 11.00,11.34

BU 847 AB: 20" 533x: 1 delta mag, ~7", nice pair 

22h 54m 36.61s +20° 19' 59.1" P.A. 36 sep 6.9 mag 9.03,10.36 Sp G5 dist. 64.89 pc (211.67 l.y.)

J 621 AB: 20" 533x: Faint near equal ~2", may be part of 2+1 system with 2x fainter star about 10" at near right angle (this is the AC pair).

22h 54m 45.21s +18° 11' 34.3" P.A. 145 sep 2.3 mag 12.61,12.74

HU 987 AB: 20" 533x: 20" 533x: Well separated one delta mag pair, nice 

22h 55m 43.52s +15° 46' 45.5" P.A. 75.9 sep 1.17 mag 9.23,9.73 Sp G5 dist. 72.99 pc (238.09 l.y.)

HEI 89 AB: 20" 533x: ! Very fine pair, very pretty not really that equal magnitude, ~2" 

23h 21m 23.99s +16° 22' 00.4" P.A. 68 sep 1.2 mag 10.49,10.85

J23228+1843A 20" 533x: Faint pair, wide, about half delta mag.

STF 3007 AB: 20" 533x: Yellow-white A and a bit orange B, ~6" and three delta mag, nice pair [Ba,Bb is TOK 704, 8.4 and 0.8", should have been noticeable! try again!]

23h 22m 48.67s +20° 33' 32.2" P.A. 94.8 sep 5.82 mag 6.74,9.78 Sp G2V+dK6 dist. 37.38 pc (121.93 l.y.)

STF 3021 AB: 20" 533x: Yellow and blue, two delta mag, wide 

23h 31m 24.65s +16° 13' 07.6" P.A. 308 sep 8.7 mag 8.06,9.26 Sp F8 dist. 220.26 pc (718.49 l.y.)

COU 243 AB: 20" 533x: Fine but definitely nicely split, a little different in mag, white stars

23h 31m 50.88s +21° 48' 15.2" P.A. 343 sep 0.9 mag 9.73,10.34 Sp G0

STF 3023 AB 20" 533x: White A and slightly red B, pretty well separated for 1.5" given the resolution of this scope.

23h 32m 24.68s +17° 24' 15.1" P.A. 280 sep 1.8 mag 7.23,9.11 Sp F4IV dist. 153.14 pc (499.54 l.y.)

STT 503 AB: 20" 533x: Near equal white stars, nicely separated, ~1"

23h 42m 02.13s +20° 17' 47.3" P.A. 134 sep 1 mag 8.26,8.63 Sp F8 dist. 108.46 pc (353.8 l.y.)

STT 504: 20" 533x: Yellow and blue stars, nicely wide separated, pretty 

23h 42m 31.33s +18° 39' 59.3" P.A. 176 sep 7.7 mag 7.39,10.33 Sp K0 dist. 202.02 pc (658.99 l.y.)

HEI 196 AB 20" 533x: Very fine pair, more near equal though noticiable difference in mag, well split but less than 1" 

23h 43m 25.34s +16° 52' 37.4" P.A. 166 sep 0.8 mag 10.62,11.17

STT 505: 20" 533x: Yellow A and kind of dull white-blue B, two delta mag, ~2.5"

23h 45m 29.33s +20° 24' 55.6" P.A. 60 sep 2.4 mag 6.75,9.61 Sp G8III dist. 159.24 pc (519.44 l.y.)

EGB 8 AB: 20" 533x: Near equal white ~1"

23h 46m 31.40s +17° 05' 13.0" P.A. 86 sep 1.2 mag 9.51,9.68 Sp F8 dist. 155.76 pc (508.09 l.y.)

TDT 4190 AB: 20" 533x: ! Amazing I got the split at 533x only, clean split, near equal, light orange stars. 

23h 46m 58.42s +17° 25' 51.2" P.A. 34 sep 0.6 mag 10.25,10.31 Sp F8

J 300 AB: 20" 533x: Half detla mag, wide, ~3-4"

23h 47m 02.62s +16° 15' 15.5" P.A. 15 sep 3.5 mag 10.60,11.10 Sp F5

HEI 91 AB: 20" 533x: ! Wow B star emerges with perfect seeing only, just within where A's diffraction ring was -- seeing needs to be so good the ring all but disappears, otherwise the ring would hide it. Great. 

23h 48m 38.11s +16° 21' 36.4" P.A. 153 sep 0.7 mag 10.10,11.90

BRT2518 AB: 20" 533x: Faint equal pair, blue, ~2.5" 

23h 56m 38.36s +18° 55' 14.2" P.A. 308 sep 3.2 mag 12.00,12.20

4 october 2019

Last night had pretty poor conditions: thin clouds, mediocre seeing. But I opened up anyway in case things improved. They didn't much, but I'm surprised that I still had a rewarding session with several neat observations. I used the 8" throughout, removing it once in a while to spot and confirm a faint secondary star. I used my 5mm eyepiece throughout, since it is my "detection" eyepiece -- getting used to the field and the separation it provides. It was dewy but I used the dew controller to manage it. Observed from around 9pm to 11pm. Saw the possum walk along the back fence again.

STF 2596 AB: 8" 553x: Orange pair with 2 delta mag companion, about 2", well split.

19h 54m 01.95s +15° 17' 31.7" P.A. 297 sep 2.1 mag 7.29,8.68 Sp F8V dist. 82.58 pc (269.38 l.y.)

STF 2613 AB: 8" 553x: Easy pair, wide, 1 delta mag light orange color, 4". 

20h 01m 26.66s +10° 44' 54.8" P.A. 352.1 sep 4.14 mag 7.48,8.02 Sp F5V+F5V dist. 80.58 pc (262.85 l.y.)

STF 2616: 8" 553x: Pretty orange and blue pair, well separated about 2 delta mag. B very faint in 8", but know is there. With 20" easily seen as a brighter star. Nice pair
20h 02m 46.04s +14° 34' 57.7" P.A. 268 sep 3.4 mag 6.85,9.64 Sp K0 dist. 483.09 pc (1575.84 l.y.)

STF 2618 AB: 8" 553x: Near equal, whiteish blue stars, wide. Nice
20h 03m 26.98s +15° 28' 14.4" P.A. 115 sep 5.6 mag 9.41,9.77 Sp A0

A 1194 AB: 8" 553x: Near equal bluish-white (seems nearly all 9th magnitude stars appear bluish white in my 8"). Cleanly split with seeing, 1". 

20h 03m 59.56s +12° 21' 23.8" P.A. 317 sep 1.1 mag 9.53,9.70 Sp F8V

STF 2620 AB: 8" 553x: Almost 2 delta mag, ~1.5" easily split pair, nice. [Eclipsing binary]

20h 04m 09.25s +11° 47' 40.3" P.A. 287 sep 1.9 mag 8.23,9.18 Sp B9 dist. 4347.83 pc (14182.62 l.y.)

STF 2621 AB: 8" 553x: More equal than SkyTools data shows, one is orange and the other blue. Maybe the orange star is variable. Wide separation, another nice pair 

20h 04m 34.52s +09° 14' 24.2" P.A. 224 sep 5.7 mag 8.36,8.62 Sp B8V+A1V dist. 228.83 pc (746.44 l.y.)

BU 57 AB: 8" 553x: = V1472 Aql: At 8" the B appears as a suspected brightening in the diffraction, whitish to the A star's orange. At 20" the B star is obvious and blue a nice sharp point ~2.5"

20h 05m 26.53s +15° 30' 01.3" P.A. 120 sep 2.6 mag 6.60,11.00 Sp M2.5III dist. 126.26 pc (411.86 l.y.)

J20065+1253A 8" 553x: Well seen with 8", wide but pretty faint. Not too hard to see the faint B since it's so wide

BU 428 AB: 8" 553x: Definite hard split with 20", slightly yellow A and yellow-orange B star. With 8" the B is more a round haze snowman-to-hairline split with seeing. 

20h 06m 43.37s +12° 56' 12.1" P.A. 356 sep 0.8 mag 7.55,9.13 Sp F4III

BRT 1336 AB: 8" 553x: Easy wide split about half delta mag, stars appear blue
20h 07m 00.13s +12° 20' 16.8" P.A. 292 sep 5.5 mag 9.90,10.85 Sp A0III

STF 2629 AB: 8" 553x: White and rather strikingly blue star (and I don't think it's blue because it's faint), wide separation, 2 delta mag.

20h 07m 20.78s +16° 04' 34.7" P.A. 188 sep 9 mag 7.63,10.61 Sp B9IV dist. 1000 pc (3262 l.y.)

STF 2628 AB: 8" 553x: Nice, very pretty white and light orange B star, 3 delta mag, wide separation. Very pretty pair.
20h 07m 50.37s +09° 23' 59.4" P.A. 338 sep 3 mag 6.60,8.66 Sp F3V dist. 39.37 pc (128.42 l.y.)

STF 2742 AB: 8" 553x: = Lam Equ Sky Tools says 1 delta mag but these are near equal, white, wide 3" separation.
21h 02m 12.51s +07° 10' 47.3" P.A. 215 sep 2.9 mag 7.41,7.64 Sp F8 dist. 80.97 pc (264.12 l.y.)

STF 2749 AC: 8" 553x: Pretty yellow A and slightly red B, about 2 delta mag, wide about 3" [several other pairs in system]
21h 04m 45.11s +03° 32' 02.0" P.A. 177 sep 3.4 mag 8.06,9.36 Sp G0 dist. 81.83 pc (266.93 l.y.)

STF 2765 AB: 8" 553x: White, more equal than the 1 delta mag Sky Tools has, about 3" sep. [AC 14th mag not seen]
21h 10m 59.31s +09° 32' 57.9" P.A. 79 sep 2.8 mag 8.47,8.50 Sp A3IV dist. 151.98 pc (495.76 l.y.)

BU 163 AB: 8" 553x: Can resolve in 20" and once know where B is, can split with 8", but B is much fainter and is more a brightening in the first diffraction than at star [Several other fainter pairs]

21h 18m 34.85s +11° 34' 08.2" P.A. 77.4 sep 0.92 mag 7.31,8.88 Sp G0V+G6V dist. 47.66 pc (155.47 l.y.)

STF 2786 AB: 8" 553x: Sharp white and B is about 1 delta mag and duller, almost bluish. 

21h 19m 39.36s +09° 31' 30.3" P.A. 189 sep 2.8 mag 7.49,8.20 Sp A3IV dist. 185.53 pc (605.2 l.y.)

BRT1355 AB: 8" 553x: Picked out right away with 8" but B is better seen with averted vision, flashed better into view. 

21h 22m 25.59s +11° 11' 01.4" P.A. 194 sep 3.9 mag 11.50,12.50

STF 2767 AB: 8" 553x: Nice and sharp near equal (not the 1 delta mag Sky Tools has), well separated ~4"
21h 10m 30.43s +19° 57' 35.7" P.A. 29 sep 2.5 mag 8.19,8.47 Sp F4V dist. 181.82 pc (593.1 l.y.)

J21297+1719A 8" 553x: Elongated and notched with seeing, helped brighten the components with averted vision. Didn't try higher power due to seeing.

STF 2804 AB: 8" 553x: Nice light orange and light blue, sharp, 1 delta mag 3". pretty.

21h 32m 58.30s +20° 42' 44.5" P.A. 1 sep 3.7 mag 7.70,8.04 Sp F5V dist. 56.53 pc (184.4 l.y.)

STT 445 AB: 8" 553x: Obvious elongation and would split if transparency were better, but as is the bloated diffractions bleed into each other, so more notched than split. 

21h 39m 19.03s +20° 43' 17.8" P.A. 121 sep 1 mag 9.54,9.87 Sp A2

AG 277 AB: 8" 553x: Easy, seems half or more delta mag than the point two in Sky Tools, wide about 3". [not physical]

21h 46m 04.21s +21° 11' 12.2" P.A. 62 sep 2.7 mag 9.89,9.99 Sp G5

STF 2841 A-BC: 8" 553x: Very wide 2 delta mag pair, white and light blue [COU 432 is the AB, 0.1" near equal, was 0.2" at discovery!]

21h 54m 17.44s +19° 43' 05.3" P.A. 110 sep 22.4 mag 6.45,7.99 Sp K0III+F7V dist. 102.99 pc (335.95 l.y.)

STF 2854 AB: 8" 553x: Striking pair, more near equal then 1 delta mag in Sky Tools. 2", white. Very nice. 

22h 04m 22.52s +13° 38' 53.4" P.A. 84 sep 1.5 mag 7.77,7.89 Sp F6V dist. 72.1 pc (235.19 l.y.)

HD 210407: 8" 553x: Need averted vision to bring out B, but it splits even with such odd viewing.

STF 2905 AB: 8" 553x: Nice near equal about 3", pretty. [not physical]
22h 27m 12.81s +15° 09' 12.8" P.A. 285 sep 3.4 mag 9.28,9.34 Sp G1V

challenger night

Given I am unable to go to CalStar this year (and just as well since the weather looks poor), I took an open window to go to Fremont Peak last night to observe with the Challenger. I arrived at 6:00pm and opened right away, since it was close to 100 degrees in the observatory, and in the lower 80s outside. I ate and tried to take a nap. There was no one else there on a weekday night, and maybe only a couple of campers. It was nice to have the silence; no highway noise, just the crickets and an occasional hooting owl. Seeing was fairly good at 7/10 (and Jupiter and Saturn looked fantastic in the 5" refractor finder during twilight), but transparency was not very good, as evidenced by my difficulty observing even bright galaxies and the thin cloud cover in the morning. The focusers were all out of collimation. It was warm, just needing a tee-shirt most of the night. SQML didn't get higher than 20.8, and the Salinas sky glow was very pronounced. The site is very compromised, really only good when there is a marine layer, but there was none last night. I didn't try to use The Sky with the Challenger, so I was left only to star hop. I forgot to bring my RACI diagonal so this was a frustrating experience. I really need to learn how to use it since star hopping on this scope is a chore and I'll end up hating it.

Something special was a bright meteor travelling N-S through Cetus, which I saw while taking a break (at around 1am?) while sitting on the south facing bench on the pads.  Not only was it bright, and left behind a smoky trail which lingered a seconds, but I also heard the meteor.  I was out of ear shot of the Challenger's drive, which makes a continual grinding noise.  I heard a "ssst-pop" sound, coming from over my head and a little forward.  I heard it just as the tail was fading.  I found out at home later that these are called electrophonic meteors, and others report them too.  It was really cool to hear it.

Gamma Hercules: Someone posted on Cloudy Nights about DRS 58, a companion to Gamma Hercules. It was listed as 8th magnitude and 8" separation, though this is K band so the visual magnitude is something like 13. I tried it a couple times at home last week with my 20", employing an 9mm orthoscopic eyepiece with an occulting bar, but without success. This was my first target and while I noted several stars fairly close to the bright and swimming A (having set it below the occulting bar), none of them match the stated PA of DRS 58. So this will need to wait for another season to try, since Gamma is getting low.

5 Equ: 30" 118x: I don't find this in Stelle Doppie so will need to check my reference later. It's a double star in Equuleus and was immediately seen as a faint blue star, fairly wide from it's A.  [This is a terrible notation.  KNT 5 AB is 0.6" and 4 delta mag, and doable at high magnification.  BU 71 AC is nearly 8 delta mag and 60".  STFA 54 AD is only 1.3 delta mag but 335".  It's likely I saw the STFA, but I really didn't keep good notes.  In my defense, I was there for deep sky, not doubles]

I found M5 as a reference then moved to some things around it:

NGC 7068: 30" 457x: Near a bright star to the north, and a faint star just below it to the east. The galaxy is a dim streak, 4:1 N-S, but with a brighter bulging core and bright but non-stellar nucleus.

NGC 7094: 30" 166x: Shell is not seen without OIII filter. The central star is constantly seen. Shell has a fat tire shape, with a small dark hole around the central star. The outer shell is unevenly round, and between the dark hole and the edges there is some mottling or change in brightness & texture. The edges are generally soft, but there is a brightening with two knots on the NW and W rim. This did not take magnification well, it seemed to spread the shell out too much.

QSO 2237+0305 Einstein's Cross 30" 457x: After a long and careful star hop I found the correct region, using a backwards "L" asterism as my final finding pointer. I could see the lensing galaxy very consistently as a 3:1 glow with a brighter core. There was a faint star just to the north of the galaxy which I used to fine-focus and to monitor the seeing. When the seeing stills this star sharpened to a point and I knew that was the best moment. I spent about 20 minutes looking, and there were about ten instances in that time where a white point hardened in the haze a little offset to the south of the what I think was the center of the galaxy. This might have been the A component. A few times I felt there was a second such point, though much, much fainter -- which could have been C. But these views were so fleeting I wonder if it was simply the lensing galaxy's bright nucleus revealing itself. So the quest will continue.

BTW the corner star of the "L" appears to be a double, 7" separation, about 3 delta magnitude. I also felt the star at the tip of the small line of the "L" was also a double, very close, about 1" and a large delta mag. I don't see a second star marked at that position on Aladin.

NGC 7463, 7464, 7465: 30" 118x & 457x: Galaxy mash up. Three galaxies 3' to the NE of a bright 8th magnitude star. N7463 is largest, elongated 4:1 E-W, with a bright and mottled core, showing what must be dark lanes. It has a large faint halo of sweeping arms -- the arm to the west is brighter and emerges from the NW corner of the elongated core and sweeps West before turning south and seeming to envelope NGC 7464. N7464 is small, faint, brighter core with thin diffuse halo, and actually wedge shaped, like an arrowhead pointed WSW. A bit further to the east is NGC 7465, which is small, bright, and round with tapered tips pointed N-S; looks almost globular cluster like (in the DSS image there is a cluster of very faint stars scattered to the south of N7464. Is this an uncatalogued open cluster?

NGC 7468: Bright bean shape glow, N-S, almost no halo. Barest hint of dust lane? [I was just picking up on the odd misshape to the core, which is kind of notched].

NGC 7503, 7499, 7501: 30" 166x: Trio of faint ellipticals in an arc E-W, like an eyebrow. 7501 & are slightly closer together. There's a scattering of stars beneath the "brow" making the whole scene oddly circular.

NGC 7529: 30" 166x: Very diffuse, barely there, small round glow. Tough to make out. Did not see IC 5291.

NGC 14 = Arp 235: 30" 166x: Elongated 3:2 NE-SW, brighter mottled core increasing in brightness to an oval shaped nucleus. The faint halo, which at 457x spreads more brightly to the SW like a comet tail and envelop a faint star [DSS shows this glow and faint star].

NGC 240: Round mottled glow 1' to the NE of a ~10th magnitude star, diffuse edges, stellar nucleus. There seems to be a star or knot in the NE part of the outer halo.

NGC 584 & 586: 30" 166x: N 586, Bright compact nucleus and core, elongated 3:1 N-S, mist of a halo around it trying to organize but can't quite. N 584 a bit formless and diffuse, generally brighter in the middle.

NGC 596 30" 166x: Bright nucleus and core, round halo, mottling between halo and core. Must be spiral. Near bright star.

NGC 467 = Arp 227, 30" 166x: Bright with a compact core and round small halo, 3.6' to the west of a 7.5 magnitude star. I believe it is an Arp because of the small galaxy (LEDA 1249151) 1.6' to the west which appears to be enveloped into its halo; did not see this galaxy.

NGC 470 & 474 30" 166x: On the opposite of the star from NGC 467. NGC 474 has a bright mottled core elongated 3:1 N-S. DSS image shows a huge round surrounding halo, not seen. NGC 470 is the largest, but faintest, with a stellar nucleus and obvious mottling in the halo -- definitely spiral but very disorganized.

NGC 520 = Arp 157 "Flying Ghost": 30" 166x: Very interesting object. A faint star on NE end of a cometary shaped galaxy, bright elongated core lopsided on the same side as the star, with a mottled, ragged halo which trails off to the SE. [This is an interacting pair; the disks have merged but the nuclei have not yet.]

AGC 194: So many galaxies, popping into view in the general fog of the area and with averted vision. A bit much to describe but my field sketch of the area notes 16 galaxies within a half degree field of view.

M74 30" 166x: Gently inclined spiral, brighter on East end, brighter core, mottling suggesting spiral within the whole round halo, diffuse edges. .

M77 30" 118x, 166x, 457x. The core appears like a spiral within the larger spiral, like a cat's eye shape. The core itself has dark lanes which separate it from the larger halo. Definite spiral structure in the halo. Intensely bright nucleus. The huge halo sweeps like a shell or wave on both north and south sides, though is it brighter on the northside. There's a bright star in the spiral arm gap on the south side. Very great object, takes magnification well.

23 september 2019

Last night was pretty good, in spite of mediocre seeing (around 6/7) and 2-3/5 transparency. Seems I haven't had a clean clear night in ages. Nonetheless I captured a few difficult pairs. I replaced my hand controller cable, which had three connections to it (going through a stalk and then extending out to the HC itself) with a single cable running from the Servo CAT to the HC. The control was much improved; what I thought was backlash delay from when I pressed a button to when the scope moved, I think now was really just a poor connection between the HC and the Servo CAT. It makes me consider if I should get rid of the stalk connections altogether, since this is meant to be a permanent set-up, I don't need the stalk interface...

STF 2390 AB: 20" 553x: Light yellow and pale blue, wide, 2 delta mag.
18h 45m 49.83s +34° 31' 06.6" P.A. 155 sep 4.3 mag 7.37,8.56 Sp A7V dist. 357.14 pc (1164.99 l.y.)

SLE 120 AB 20" 553x: Fairly wide, about half delta mag, 7". Plain stars [not physical]
18h 45m 49.38s +31° 13' 17.8" P.A. 115 sep 6.9 mag 11.60,11.70

SLE 366 AB 20" 553x: Faint orange and blue, pretty pair, wide about 9", almost one delta mag
18h 46m 04.64s +27° 34' 17.3" P.A. 337 sep 10 mag 10.60,12.38 Sp F1

TDT1047 AB: 20" 553x: Seeing not supporting steady view, but suspected elongation and notch at 553x, and at 1067x the image is soft but certainly a pair of stars in haze flashing brighter with averted vision

18h 46m 24.73s +28° 15' 24.5" P.A. 242 sep 0.7 mag 11.49,11.71

HU 935 AB 20" 553x: Easy pair, ~3", one detla mag, yellow white stars. well split [not physical]
18h 46m 38.12s +32° 10' 02.9" P.A. 153 sep 3 mag 9.88,10.57 Sp F5

BRT 261 AB 20" 553x: Quite easy pair, almost one delta mag, wide about 4-5".
18h 46m 48.48s +30° 53' 55.4" P.A. 18 sep 4.7 mag 10.30,11.20

STF 2397 AB, 20" 553x: Light orange and blue, pretty pair, two delta mag, wide ~5"

18h 47m 13.09s +31° 24' 20.2" P.A. 269 sep 3.9 mag 7.47,9.08 Sp G3III dist. 271 pc (884 l.y.)

COU1154 AB 20" 667x: ! Suspect notch at 553x, 1067x too hazy, but great clean split at 667x, very small, near equal. What a great sight.
18h 47m 38.65s +32° 47' 28.9" P.A. 55 sep 0.6 mag 11.07,11.00

TDT1063 AB 20" 667x: Suspected at 553x, with 667x can observe elongation, and with averted vision it flashes definite elongation and at times split. Need to avert vision for the B star to be seen and to split but can hold if seeing steadies.

18h 48m 38.18s +31° 32' 09.6" P.A. 299 sep 0.6 mag 11.50,11.53

J 1208 AB 20" 553x: Easy white near equal, wide, about 5". May be another double in filed, which has a brighter A star but much fainter B, around 6" separation
18h 49m 14.79s +28° 34' 47.1" P.A. 334 sep 4.7 mag 11.50,12.10

STF 2406 AB: 20" 553x: White star and much fainter B, ~4" sep, four delta mag. B looks a little red, pale.
18h 49m 55.77s +26° 25' 30.6" P.A. 4 sep 4.6 mag 7.12,11.21 Sp A3V dist. 118.34 pc (386.03 l.y.)

A 256 AB 20" 553x: ! Orange pair, about 2 delta mag, wide 4-5". Nice pair.
18h 50m 03.54s +31° 48' 48.2" P.A. 59 sep 2.9 mag 9.04,11.17 Sp G5

HJ 1352 AB 20" 553x: White star and very much fainter blue B, wide. [not physical]

18h 50m 03.28s +29° 48' 55.0" P.A. 251 sep 13.5 mag 7.62,11.30 Sp A0III dist. 338.98 pc (1105.75 l.y.)

COU 1012 AB 20" 667x: Split best moments at 667x, suspect elongation 553x. Always elongated but needs seeing to still for split. Noticeable difference in mag, about one delta mag, but the stars are so close together is hard to tell.

18h 51m 49.06s +31° 05' 00.5" P.A. 239 sep 0.4 mag 9.60,10.90 Sp F2

HDS 2677 Aa-Ab: 20" 667x: Pale yellow star resolved as a point on the first diffraction, very faint, only when seeing tightens
18h 52m 27.43s +26° 32' 05.6" P.A. 81 sep 1 mag 8.34,12.12 Sp G0V dist. 62.07 pc (202.47 l.y.)

TDT1118 AB 20 667x: Averted vision flashes elongation, but this one is very tough. Without AV I see a tight notched rod, very small, with notable difference in brightness.
18h 53m 39.35s +30° 08' 06.3" P.A. 161 sep 0.6 mag 11.27,11.45

HU 1294 AB: 20" 667x: ! Well split, 1.5 delta mag, 2" sep, light orange and blue stars. pretty.

18h 54m 14.83s +32° 14' 12.7" P.A. 118 sep 1.6 mag 9.55,10.62 Sp F5

BRT 3335 AB 20" 553x: Easy near equal, wide. These are the central stars of an arc of four. [not physical. DAL 5 AC is likely one of these additional stars in the arc, 12.07 26.2".]
18h 54m 35.26s +27° 54' 16.5" P.A. 69 sep 10 mag 11.92,11.71

A 258 AB: 20" 667x: Very tough. I get elongation at 553x, and more clear elongation at 667x, but no split, not even notching, more like an unevenly illuminated rod. Seeing not support higher power.
18h 54m 59.91s +30° 52' 45.5" P.A. 237.7 sep 0.31 mag 8.86,9.88 Sp G0

TDT 1139 AB: 20" 553x: Faint pair not quite equal, wide ~4". Seems an elongated haze behind it, as if in front of galaxy , or unresolved stars [Checked DSS, no galaxy behind it, and not particularly dense with stars]

18h 56m 32.12s +26° 51' 50.3" P.A. 242 sep 2.9 mag 10.79,11.85

J18570+2747A AB 20" 667x: Suspect elongation 553x, @ 667x definite sense and flash of B star with averted and can hold when seeing stills

STF 2695 AB: Using 8" mask at 667x, no sign of elongation. With 20" and progressively higher magnifications, I can get to olive shape at 1067x, but extremely marginal. [0.8" at discovery, so easier for Struve]
20h 31m 58.19s +25° 48' 18.1" P.A. 257.8 sep 0.44 mag 6.58,8.75 Sp Am+A2 dist. 87.03 pc (283.89 l.y.)

ROE 13 AB: 20" 553x: Nice wide pair two delta mag white stars.
20h 32m 23.61s +22° 26' 02.7" P.A. 41 sep 6.4 mag 9.97,12.00 Sp F5+G5

A 2793 AB: 20" 553x: ! Nice! very fine pair, white stars, half delta mag, close, ~1"

20h 36m 29.63s +23° 41' 43.5" P.A. 210 sep 0.9 mag 9.90,10.26 Sp F8

AG 260 AB: 20" 553x: Yellow and light yellow stars, wide and bright, nice pair
20h 38m 09.42s +25° 10' 51.2" P.A. 219 sep 9.7 mag 8.38,10.00 Sp G5

TDT 2441: 20" 667x: ! Very difficult and faint B star appears with averted vision, only at the instant seeing settles the A star down to a clean round diffraction. B is a brown hard point on the diffraction ring. very tough.
20h 38m 20.78s +21° 05' 37.5" P.A. 102 sep 0.6 mag 10.56,10.58