Saturday, March 16, 2019

short sessions

Last night I was home late from work but was still able to observe.  It's one of the advantages of having an observatory -- I rolled it away when I got home to let the scope cool while I had dinner and took care of my evening chores.  So when I was ready, at around 9:30pm, I needed only step outside to enjoy the views.  I simply gazed at the moon with binoviewers, enjoying all the features and wrecked rubble.  I had my atlas with me but chose not to open it or try identifying anything.  Seeing was poor, unfortunately; but it will be good tonight.

Thursday night I was out briefly for some moon gazing and to try for some closer doubles.  Seeing was only moderate, and transparency off, so it wasn't very successful.  At 553x:

STF 840: B maybe elongated?  Not sure.  Seeing too poor, need the 20"?
06H 06M 28.04S +10° 45' 01.2" P.A. 126 SEP 0.4 MAG 9.80,10.10 SP F0 DIST. 225.73 PC (736.33 L.Y.)

STT 124: Briefly split in the best moments, 1 second out of 10.  Yellow-white and small, hard blue B.
05H 58M 53.23S +12° 48' 29.8" P.A. 305.8 SEP 0.33 MAG 6.11,7.37 SP K2III+A5V DIST. 243.31 PC (793.68 L.Y.)

Fab 5: Maybe a misshapen disk -- but not steady
06H 31M 40.54S +05° 46' 08.8" P.A. 18 SEP 0.9 MAG 7.23,9.56 SP A1P DIST. 80.45 PC (262.43 L.Y.)

Tuesday, March 12, 2019

433 Eros

Last night was a rare clear night, so observed with Big Blue.  I planned to go out in any case, but in the afternoon Ray Howard posted on TAC that near-earth asteroid 433 would occult 6.7 mag star HIP 33731 in Monoceros at 10:50 -- so I printed out the finder charts and planned to observe it at the end of the night.

Transparency was on the poor side and seeing not any better, with badly bloated stars; so I kept magnification mostly low at 170x.  Nevertheless, it was a decent session:

I started out on the moon looking at all the usual features, but in this session, many small craters were shadow filled small pocks on the surface.  Wrinkle ridges and hills all seemed more pronounced.

STF 840: Wide blue-white and slightly red pair, 1 delta mag. [A,BC seen.  BC is 0.4" and would make a great target for a night with better seeing]
06H 06M 28.04S +10° 45' 01.0" P.A. 248 SEP 21.4 MAG 7.17,8.95 SP A0V+F0 DIST. 225.73 PC (736.33 L.Y.)

STT 124: Seeing not good.  Bloated yellow star with bluish B just attached to the edge, like a wart...  B is very faint, small. [On another night this would have been a clean split]
05H 58M 53.23S +12° 48' 29.8" P.A. 305.8 SEP 0.33 MAG 6.11,7.37 SP K2III+A5V DIST. 243.31 PC

STF 848 / NGC 2169: Close bluish pair near the center of the cluster of ~25 stars, a fair brightness range, no center, loose.  Nice!  [WDS seems to list every star in the cluster as part of the system; AB likely it.]
06H 08M 30.36S +13° 58' 15.8" P.A. 111 SEP 2.5 MAG 7.28,8.15 SP B1V+B2V DIST. 300.3 PC (979.58 L.Y.)

NGC 2194: Small round cluster, very faint stars in a mist.  Washed out.  ~5 slightly brighter stars in front of the mist.

STF 950: This is the brightest star, forming the trunk, of the Christmas Tree cluster, NGC 2264.  Bright white and wide 4 delta mag B star, well separated.  Spent some time at 71x to look at the cluster as a whole. [here again the whole cluster is the system, WDS?]
06H 40M 58.66S +09° 53' 44.7" P.A. 214 SEP 3 MAG 4.66,7.79 SP O7VE+B2: DIST. 281.69 PC (918.87 L.Y.)

NGC 2661 / Hubble's Variable Nebula: I didn't expect to see much and I wouldn't call it bright, but clearly present direct vision as a sharply triangular nebula with a bright "nucleus" star.  It is certainly the most comet-looking non-comets, and why Messier didn't notice it is a mystery. 

14 Mon / STF 938: Bright A and very faint 4 delta mag B
06H 34M 46.33S +07° 34' 21.0" P.A. 209 SEP 11 MAG 6.45,10.60 SP A0VS DIST. 115.47 PC (376.66 L.Y.)

STT 142: Wide finder split, 1 star is red the other, in the scope, has a 2 delta mag well-separated companion. [The closer pair is the pair.]
06H 29M 55.96S +07° 06' 43.2" P.A. 355 SEP 8.2 MAG 7.12,10.57 SP B2.5IV/V DIST. 409.84 PC (1336.9 L.Y.)

STF 926: In a triangle of stars which point towards the Rosette Nebula.  Blue-white and slightly red, 1 delta mag, wide. [A star is FAB 5, 0.9" and 2 delta mag, would make a good target under better seeing.]
06H 31M 40.54S +05° 46' 08.8" P.A. 287 SEP 10.8 MAG 7.23,8.62 SP A1P DIST. 80.45 PC (262.43 L.Y.)

Rosette Nebula: In the 80mm finder using a 35mm erfle and OIII filter, it was faintly there as a fat, irregular ring of darkness or smoke.  Could tell something there mainly from how the stars cut-off in the field.  In the scope at 71x and OIII, I could more clearly "see" the absence of stars and sense the cloud.  I moved around the edges and could fit each quarter of the nebula in the field at a time. 

All these rich fields of stars!  What we've been missing all this time during the rainy season.  I'm reminded of how happy observing makes me feel.

STF 1126: Not split at 170x on this night
07H 40M 06.99S +05° 13' 51.9" P.A. 178 SEP 0.82 MAG 6.55,6.96 SP A0III

STF 1103: pretty blue-white and orange-red, close but split.
07H 30M 33.61S +05° 15' 16.8" P.A. 247 SEP 3.9 MAG 7.12,8.64 SP B9 DIST. 187.62 PC (612.02 L.Y.)

STF 1056: Wide reddish pair.
07H 15M 34.34S -01° 51' 36.8" P.A. 299 SEP 3.9 MAG 8.04,8.88 SP G0 DIST. 246.91 PC (805.42 L.Y.)

NGC 2301: Finder find as a few brighter stars in a line with a round mist in the middle.  In the scope it is a large half a degree group, loose with a faint mist of stars in the middle.  There's a nice bright blue and orange pair in the center dominating the scene.  Strings of moderately bright stars radiate from the center; there is a string of brighter stars running tangentially to the mist.  A very nice cluster.

433 Eros occulting HIP 33731:  The highlight of the night!  My notebook says Holy Sh**!!  Star occulted by an asteroid,  Zip it was gone, UT 05:51:05.  Blue star and reddish well split B (not sure of doubleness).   Gone for more than a heartbeat but before I could catch my breath, then zip it was back.  Wow that was so cool.  It completely disappeared, I could imagine as if a shutter passed over it, then blackness!  No star where there should be one...then it flipped on again!  Wow! 
I found the star about five minutes beforehand and was careful to relax and keep my eye open, I didn't want to blnik and miss it.  I resisted the temptation to look at my watch -- I wished at that moment to have someone or something reading out the time.  And in a moment of just looking it flipped out, dark long enough for me to marvel that I was actually seeing it, then it came on again.  I didn't notice if it occulted the B star too.  What a great feeling.