ophiuchus doubles

I almost didn't observe last night; I saw a lot of scintillation when I went outside.  But I opened up anyhow and looked at Jupiter.  It was surprisingly good, with moments of sharpness.  I used binoviewers and the apodizing mask.  I did a brief experiment where I turned the suspended boundary layer fan on and off; my impression was the on hurt the view, either from turbulence or vibration.  I need to run more tests but for now I'm thinking to take it out and just use a fan attached to one of the truss poles to blow down during cool down.

I thought to look at some of the pretty clusters in Ophiuchus, and that started me on to looking at some doubles.  Seeing 6-7/10, Transparency 3/5 with marine haze.

STF 2166: White and slight off-white wide separation B.  8" 333x.
17h 27m 52.25s +11° 23' 25.8" P.A. 282 sep 27.2 mag 7.15,8.58 Sp A5V dist. 115.07 pc (375.36 l.y.)

STF 2185: Finder split but the actual pair is probably the faint star to the side of one of these seen in the scope, 2 delta mag, wide, 8" 333x. [AB seen; many other pairings. CDSA" High CPM, solar type (2)+1 triple, AB ps = 3,440 AU 2013)."]
17h 34m 48.53s +06° 01' 25.8" P.A. 5 sep 27.2 mag 7.46,10.32 Sp F8 dist. 91.07 pc (297.07 l.y.)

Shy 726: Pretty yellowish-white A star and a very wide separated 1 delta mag bluish B.  Two more faint stars bracket the pair, wider, might be part of the system. 8" 333x
17h 33m 52.81s +08° 06' 13.5" P.A. 12 sep 228 mag 7.92,8.59 Sp G0+G dist. 84.1 pc (274.33 l.y.)

STF 2186: near equal, well separated.  8" 333x
17h 35m 50.43s +00° 59' 47.7" P.A. 78 sep 3 mag 8.23,8.43 Sp B8IV dist. 302.11 pc (985.48 l.y.)

Sh 251: Orange stars, finder split, 1.5 delta mag.  A star feels not round at 8" 333x & 667x & 20" 667x, though the 20" had too much diffraction.  [No close to A]
17h 39m 08.48s +02° 01' 41.2" P.A. 328 sep 110.8 mag 6.37,7.78 Sp K0III dist. 112.99 pc (368.57 l.y.)

STT 331: Slight red and pale blue, half delta mag, very tight ~1". Maybe +1 with wide star as faint as B. [AB tight pair, AC wide]
17h 32m 02.86s +02° 49' 25.4" P.A. 351 sep 1 mag 7.74,8.82 Sp B5V dist. 476.19 pc (1553.33 l.y.)

30 Oph: Orange star with several very wide faint stars which might be paired.
ENG 59 AB: 17h 01m 03.60s -04° 13' 21.5" P.A. 68 sep 100.4 mag 4.99,9.71 Sp K4III dist. 124.22 pc (405.21 l.y.)
ARN 16 AC: 17h 01m 03.60s -04° 13' 21.5" P.A. 85 sep 221 mag 4.99,8.75 Sp K4III dist. 124.22 pc (405.21 l.y.)

STF 2122: Pale yellow and wide separated B, 2 delta mag.
17h 06m 52.94s -01° 39' 22.0" P.A. 279 sep 20.3 mag 6.38,9.73 Sp A8V+G5V dist. 90.5 pc (295.21 l.y.)

A1145: Faint wide which might be B to the bright A.  I have marginal observation of a very faint, very close-in star which briefly resolves as a point and not a flare.  8" 667x. 20" seeing too messy. [Marginal.  What I saw seemed further separated than 0.67", though it might have been. Need a better seeing night.]

17h 08m 13.65s -01° 04' 46.1" P.A. 339.8 sep 0.67 mag 6.32,7.75 Sp A1V+F3V dist. 89.53 pc (292.05 l.y.)

A2984: Bright orange star. There are some faint stars about especially as revealed by the 20", but not certain which would be a pair.  A feels not round but uncertain.  8" 667x. [Not seen, or marginal detection of close pair -- need better seeing.]
17h 16m 36.69s -00° 26' 43.1" P.A. 22.7 sep 0.69 mag 4.92,7.51 Sp K1IV dist. 63.09 pc (205.8 l.y.)

Rag 9: Light orange star, with some faint stars nearby. [AB seen.  AC is 0.7" 11.9/12.0 and definitely worth another look! CDSA: "Local, solar type 1+2 triple with low mass binary companion, sparse field.  AB ps = 1,120 AU (2012)."]
17h 22m 51.29s -02° 23' 17.4" P.A. 146 sep 46.3 mag 6.30,11.90 Sp G3V+M3V dist. 19.52 pc (63.67 l.y.)
BU 1089: 8" 667x: Very fine point resolves next to a much brighter star. Well separated but a fine sight.  With seeing.
17h 29m 47.34s -05° 55' 10.1" P.A. 321 sep 1.4 mag 6.57,8.98 Sp G8IV dist. 78.99 pc (257.67 l.y.)

STF 2191: Wide separation near equal 8" 667x [AB seen. BC is Ho 419 12.71 7.6"]
17h 39m 47.28s -04° 58' 04.8" P.A. 267 sep 26.3 mag 7.83,8.47 Sp F2V dist. 140.45 pc (458.15 l.y.)

STF 2202: half delta mag wide separation white. 8" 667x [AB]
17h 44m 34.09s +02° 34' 45.9" P.A. 94 sep 20.8 mag 6.13,6.47 Sp A1IV-V dist. 84.82 pc (276.68 l.y.)

BU xxxx: Light orange star, wide separation, 1-2 delta mag, blue B?

STF 2223: Wide separation 1.5 delta mag. [A passenger jet, probably 10k feet up, flew through the finder as I was pulling this up -- thought I'd have to view this star through its turbulence, and the seeing did seem poorer!]
17h 48m 57.84s +04° 58' 03.2" P.A. 211 sep 18.3 mag 7.56,9.66 Sp F0V dist. 86.51 pc (282.2 l.y.)

almost robo

I successfully connected to the servocat from my laptop, and when doing a normal goto from the Argo Skytools showed it was slewing...but the Argo was not sending the telescope position to Skytools, so I was unable to use Skytools to slew.  I modified the driver set-up slightly (to stop the J2000 translation) -- so we'll see if this works.  Otherwise the frustration continues.

Star hopped again to various doubles.  Seeing was not very good, even with the 8" mask.  And the moist marine haze continued -- a very fine mist in the air which I could smell.

STF 2523: 8" 205x. Near equal white, well separated. Near the Coat Hanger, which I viewed through the finder. [AB]
19h 26m 48.38s +21° 09' 46.2" P.A. 148 sep 6.4 mag 7.95,8.05 Sp B3V+B7V dist. 1470.59 pc (4797.06 l.y.)
STF 2504: 8" 205x. Yellow and slight orange, 1.5 delta mag, well separated.  In line with a 3rd star very widely separated. [Third star not part of the system]
19h 20m 59.85s +19° 08' 43.4" P.A. 282 sep 8.6 mag 7.00,9.03 Sp F5V dist. 62.7 pc (204.53 l.y.)

BU 139: 8" 667x: At the very best moments of seeing, which were fleeting, saw kissing disks to hairline split.  Suspected elongation at 205x & 333x.
19h 12m 34.45s +16° 50' 47.2" P.A. 135.9 sep 0.59 mag 7.11,7.95 Sp B9IV dist. 242.72 pc (791.75 l.y.)

STT 368: 8" 333x. Very fine 1 delta mag, ~1" split, white. [AB. AC 13.2 mag not seen]
19h 16m 01.84s +16° 09' 39.5" P.A. 219 sep 1.1 mag 7.53,8.49 Sp A9IV dist. 240.96 pc (786.01 l.y.)

STTA 178: Wide finder split, yellowish A, ~1 delta mag. 8" 333x
19h 15m 20.09s +15° 05' 01.2" P.A. 268 sep 89.6 mag 5.69,7.64 Sp G8II-III dist. 212.31 pc (692.56 l.y.)
STF 2489: White with reddish B, 3 delta mag, wide split. 8" 333x
19h 16m 26.78s +14° 32' 40.6" P.A. 347 sep 8.3 mag 5.67,9.30 Sp B9.5V dist. 125.63 pc (409.81 l.y.)

Ho 91: FF Aql. 20" 333x: Orange star, but no pair seen at 8".  Removed the mask to 20", and voilà, a faint, small point, reddish, well separated, appears.  Mask back on, and I think I can barely see the B star with averted vision, but only knowing where it was first -- and only marginally.
18h 58m 14.75s +17° 21' 39.4" P.A. 146 sep 7 mag 5.44,10.12 Sp F8II dist. 473.93 pc (1545.96 l.y.)

hercules doubles

Seeing was quite good last night, though transparency was hurt by some summer marine haze.  Had nice detailed views of Jupiter and Saturn.  Before the session started I used the SCU program to confirm the settings on my ServoCAT and just make sure I could establish the link.  I could link, and I also discovered that the AutoCAL program did not automatically save the results of when I ran it in November -- contrary to what G.M. said in his instructions.  So, I updated the settings (which fortunately I wrote down.  I found the tracking was dramatically improved -- so much so I feel anyone doing this set-up needs to have AutoCAL done as part of the standard set-up.  Ran through some doubles in Hercules and beyond.  Many of them are not in the standard Argo library so I star hopped using the hand controller.  GOTO was consistently off by a couple degrees.

STF 2276: Beautiful near equal well separated, yellowish, in nice field of stars. [AB]
18h 05m 43.30s +12° 00' 13.9" P.A. 257 sep 7.1 mag 7.09,7.44 Sp A7p dist. 138.12 pc (450.55 l.y.)

STF 2289: Just split in 20" at 205x, but flaring. 333x had messy diffraction. 8" mask at 333x gave clean disks, split, ~0.7". Dull yellow and yellow-red colors.
18h 10m 08.69s +16° 28' 35.0" P.A. 215.3 sep 1.24 mag 6.65,7.21 Sp A0V+G0III dist. 263.85 pc (860.68 l.y.)
STF 2319: Disk is not round. Very moderate olive. 8" 667x. A faint star comes out at this magnification but is not seen at 333x. It does show in the 20" at 333x easily, but the A star's disk is more diffracted. [AB not seen, it is same mag and only 5". Faint star probably AC. No close in to A noted in WDS.]
18h 27m 43.94s +19° 17' 43.9" P.A. 269 sep 42.9 mag 8.41,10.74 Sp F5 dist. 161.29 pc (526.13 l.y.)

STT 358: Pretty, near equal white, perfect disks. 8" 333x.
18h 35m 53.22s +16° 58' 32.5" P.A. 144.3 sep 1.49 mag 6.94,7.08 Sp F8V dist. 32.88 pc (107.25 l.y.)

STF 2339: White and dull white B. Close but well separated, ~1" [AB-CD seen. AB is Hu 322 1 delta mag 0.2", good to try again at 20"]
18h 33m 45.62s +17° 43' 55.9" P.A. 277 sep 1.5 mag 7.45,8.67 Sp F6V dist. 183.49 pc (598.54 l.y.)

STF 2360: Fainter white and 1 delta mag bluish B, ~4" nice pair.
18h 39m 19.16s +20° 55' 58.9" P.A. 358 sep 2.4 mag 7.97,9.16 Sp B5IV dist. 2500 pc (8155 l.y.)

STT 359: !! Kissing 8" 333x, hairline split 667x. 20" too diffracted. Near equal white A and bluish white B.
18h 35m 30.40s +23° 36' 19.9" P.A. 3.7 sep 0.75 mag 6.35,6.62 Sp G9III-IV dist. 144.3 pc (470.71 l.y.)

STF 2401: A and much fainter blue B, wide separation. [AB]
18h 48m 57.83s +21° 10' 01.3" P.A. 38 sep 4.1 mag 7.27,9.27 Sp B3V dist. 2941.18 pc (9594.13 l.y.)

STF 2415: Nice pair, 2 delta mag, well separated.
18h 54m 32.84s +20° 36' 55.1" P.A. 290 sep 2 mag 7.07,8.73 Sp A0IV dist. 194.93 pc (635.86 l.y.)

STF 2406: White star no split at 8" 333x and 667x, but needed the 20" to see the well separated B star. [11th mag a limit for 8"]
18h 49m 55.77s +26° 25' 30.6" P.A. 6 sep 4.6 mag 7.12,11.21 Sp A3V dist. 118.34 pc (386.03 l.y.)

STF 2445: Wide separated ~1.5 delta mag. [AB]
19h 04m 38.50s +23° 19' 45.5" P.A. 262 sep 12.4 mag 7.25,8.57 Sp B2Ve dist. 476.19 pc (1553.33 l.y.)

STF 2457: Pale yellow stars, wide separation, 1.5 delta mag.
19h 07m 08.02s +22° 35' 03.7" P.A. 201 sep 10.2 mag 7.46,9.52 Sp A7IV dist. 95.15 pc (310.38 l.y.)

Doing some internet searching today I found what I think is the correct ASCOM driver for ServoCAT.  What is so frustrating is that the ServoCAT instructions fail to mention anything about having to load ASCOM -- another real flaw in their documentation.  Too much left for the user to figure out.

brief session

I attempted to control the telescope from my laptop last night, but could not connect to the servocat.  Am spending the day installing various software etc. and will try again tonight.

The rear fan still causes vibration and elongated stars.  It's not clear whether the front fan helps the image at all, and is causing diffraction on at least the apodizing mask.  I will give it some time but may end up using it for cool-down only.

I viewed a few targets last night.  Seeing was poor at low elevations but not so bad, maybe 7/10, up high.  The 8" mask was giving perfect images, and even at 20" I had relatively clean airy disks of fainter stars -- so there is hope.  For certain the 8" mask makes the sky background darker, but at 20" even with the brighter background there are (as one should expect) significantly more stars to see.  That will come in handy when sky conditions permit.  But last night was a dewy and the marine haze interfered starting around 11pm.

Most at 333x and 8":

STF 2232: Dull white and dull orange, well separated, ~3 delta mag.  Nice disks!
17h 50m 15.00s +25° 17' 27.6" P.A. 140 sep 6.2 mag 6.71,8.85 Sp A1V dist. 147.49 pc (481.11 l.y.)

STF 2220: Pretty, bright canary yellow A and much fainter bluish B. Nice! [A-BC seen. Missed AC 7 BC which are near equal 0.6" -- if only I removed the mask!]
17h 46m 27.51s +27° 43' 14.3" P.A. 249 sep 35.5 mag 3.49,9.78 Sp G5IV+M3.5 dist. 8.31 pc (27.11 l.y.)

STF 2194: Orange and light blue, wide separation, ~2 delta mag. [AB]
17h 41m 05.50s +24° 30' 47.2" P.A. 7 sep 16.4 mag 6.51,9.28 Sp K1III dist. 161.81 pc (527.82 l.y.)

M13: At 20", 333x.  Looks like a face-on spiral galaxy with star clusters showing like bright stars.

STF 2101: Forgot to put the mask back on so this was at 20" initially.  Nice airy disk with a little seeing diffraction.  Orange-yellow stars well separated ~2 delta mag.
16h 45m 48.14s +35° 37' 50.5" P.A. 47 sep 4.1 mag 7.51,9.39 Sp F6V dist. 58.82 pc (191.87 l.y.)


STF 2104: White A and slightly blue B, well separated, 2 delta mag.
16h 48m 41.48s +35° 55' 19.3" P.A. 17 sep 5.7 mag 7.49,8.78 Sp F2 dist. 172.71 pc (563.38 l.y.)

STF 2320: Wide separation 1 delta mag.  Suspected a close in pair to A in the 20" but it disappeared in 8". [What I saw in the 20" was the actual pair!]
18h 27m 45.89s +24° 41' 50.8" P.A. 1 sep 0.9 mag 7.14,8.90 Sp B9V dist. 256.41 pc (836.41 l.y.)

STF 2315: Any number of stars around could be the pair; appears like a small loose open cluster. [Not seen; the pair is 0.6"]
18h 24m 58.46s +27° 23' 41.3" P.A. 115.3 sep 0.6 mag 6.57,7.77 Sp A0V+A4V dist. 117.51 pc (383.32 l.y.)
BU 1326: Is it a double-double? In fact one seems to have another extremely faint star ~4" distant in the 20" [The extremely faint star is the AB pair]
18h 26m 40.93s +26° 26' 57.2" P.A. 107 sep 5.5 mag 6.48,12.10 Sp B3V dist. 321.54 pc (1048.86 l.y.)

I could smell the moisture in the air at this point.  Jupiter and Saturn were mushy and so low as to be diffracted by my fence and bushes.

20" overhaul

I've spent the last couple of weeks doing a major overhaul of the 20".  I actually thought it would take just a day or maybe a weekend, but my projects always take at least four times as long to finish than I think they will.  Often I do something wrong, or have to spend time how to finish a task.  Here's what I did:

Mirror cell: Removed all the triangles and removed the original carpet pad disks.  I spent quite a while trying to scrape off the old adhesive with goo-gone until I finally resorted to acetone, which took all the residue right off.  I used a countersink drill bit to clean out the center pivot, then I drilled holes for the new mirror contact points (small furniture sliders).  The drilling too took a long time, until I finally went to the hardware store and bought new bits for hard metal -- it was quick after that.  In the original cell the triangles were glued at one corner each to a round piece of plastic.  I feared this would cause some strain in the cell so I drilled out wide holes to hold screws which I attached loosely to allow for some play.  The sliders actually were more slick than nylon disks, and they allowed for mechanical attachment without any milling.  I made sure each contact point was on the same as the others on each triangle, and sanded them flat as needed.

Glatter sling: I had been using a Webster sling but it doesn't adjust with the cell during collimation.  I had to use bolt cutters to cut the Webster sling out.  The Glatter is very smooth but the saddle is difficult to work with in the tight space of an Obsession mirror box.  I had to use bolt cutters to trim the excess length of the saddle bolts so it wouldn't touch the mirror box walls.  I had to adjust the length a couple of times to get the mirror centered; it was helpful to leave enough of a loop to be able to remove one end from the slider so it could be adjusted, and to have something to cover the mirror during that work.  Interestingly, the Cruxis edge support calculator gave me a result which was two or three millimeters lower than the Webster sling.  I wonder if the change will solve my astigmatism?

Boundary layer fan suspended over the mirror: I suspected my astigmatism might be thermally induced by the side blowing fans, which I had copied from Teeter's telescope design. I removed the side fans and covered the intake and exhaust holes with balsa sheets. I fashioned the suspended fan using guitar wire with its grommets attached to a circular plastic ring. To this I Velcro the fan, and I attached the fan wires to a section of paperclip using heat shrink tube. The paperclip tips slide into the grommet and the spring force holds it in place. The wires are tied to eyebolts which are then held to right angle brackets screwed into my baffle. I connected the audio jack wire to two of the guitar strings (red, black) using heat shrink tube. I was surprised that the assembly worked! The fan itself vibrates quite a lot but it does not seem to transfer to the scope -- more validation needed. It will at least cool the front in the same way the back is being cooled, and hopefully make the mirror flex in the same directions.

Rear fan: When I was assembling this back to the cell I realized part of the fan was touching the metal bar of the cell; this might've caused the vibration I noticed when the fan was running. I re-drilled holes in the fan plate and mounted with bits of mouse pad foam in between the cell and the plate. Hope this will solve the vibration problem. After mounting the counterweight bars to the cell I trimmed the excess tabs from the plumbing straps so no wires will get caught.

Wire rerouting: I drilled holes in my rocker and mirror boxes to run the wires for the fans and the dew heater.  This allows me to tie down those cables to the bottom of the rocker box, giving a nice clean run.  I can use these holes for the serial cable once I get one long enough.

Replaced the finder scope rings.  The original Stellarvue depended on one mounting stalk point, and the finder would lose center as the scope moved around.  I had an extra mounting shoe so I attached both to the UTA such that the ring assembly is secured to the UTA at each end so it is much more stable; it should not move around during the night's observing.

20" up again

Yesterday evening I made a final push to complete the 20" overhaul (more on that later) and was able to observe with it last night.  As I suspected the new cell contact points pushed my focus out and I needed to use a barrel extender on my 8mm eyepiece.  The jury is still out whether the changes I made solve my astigmatism problems, but regardless I'm ready to push on to doing a super align and to implement the computer control.

Seeing was a middling 6/10 but did seem to improve later (as usual).  I turned to Jupiter first at 205x and was pleased to find Io's shadow transit in progress.  There were five purple festoons rising up like waves.  I used the planetary filter to cut the brightness and bring out some color.  The apodizing screen showed two diffraction Xs, one from the spider and one from the suspended fan, even though that is using guitar wire.  It's difficult to tell how it affects the view.  The 8" mask provided the tightest view; the moons shrank and it seemed all the same detail was there but I needed to study it a bit more to pull it out.

Moved on to some doubles, using 8" mask and 205x mostly.  I will probably end up using the mask most of the time; fortunately it presents nice airy disks so I can't complain:

STF 2022: Nice tight split, ~2".  Large delta mag.  At 8" noticed the B star with averted vision but could hold; the image was clean.  With 20" the B star was constant and bright but with more flaring.  Fine pair.
16h 12m 45.46s +26° 40' 14.0" P.A. 154 sep 2.2 mag 6.54,10.03 Sp F2V dist. 73.26 pc (238.97 l.y.)

STF 2029: Wide split, ~2 delta mag, pretty, faint pair.
16h 13m 47.82s +28° 43' 55.9" P.A. 188 sep 6.1 mag 7.95,9.62 Sp F4IV dist. 133.16 pc (434.37 l.y.)

STF 2049: Suspected elongation at 205x, split clean at 333x.  Blue B, dull white A, 1 delta mag. Nice!
16h 27m 54.63s +25° 59' 03.4" P.A. 195 sep 1.1 mag 7.33,8.10 Sp A2.5V dist. 132.8 pc (433.19 l.y.)

NGC 6210: Planetary nebula.  Faintly visible in 80mm finder.  Greyish, irregular oval patch in 8" at 333x, averted vision brightened it.  In 20" I see it steadily, mottled, with a greenish hue.  It is thicker in appearance with some brighter portions, with some extensions suggested on opposing corners.  No central star.  Loses color with OIII and the main portion shrinks in size, but now the extensions are brighter and there are less formed extensions on the two other "corners" of the oval.  

STF 2094: Wide separation, 1 delta mag, 333x [AC seen, missed the tight A pair 1")
16h 44m 10.57s +23° 31' 02.8" P.A. 312 sep 24.9 mag 7.48,11.70 Sp F5III dist. 156.49 pc (510.47 l.y.)

STF 2085: Interesting white and red stars, wide separation, 1 delta mag.
16h 42m 26.09s +21° 35' 34.3" P.A. 309 sep 6 mag 7.38,9.17 Sp A0IV dist. 190.48 pc (621.35 l.y.)

STF 2109: Well separated, around 2 delta mag.  Surprisingly interesting pair.
16h 53m 45.78s +21° 10' 22.6" P.A. 313 sep 5.9 mag 7.52,10.30 Sp K0 dist. 188.68 pc (615.47 l.y.)

planets

Last night I felt pretty tired, still recovering from my vacation.  So did not work on the 20" but used the 8" f7 to casually look at a few things.  Seeing sharpened after 10pm but by then I needed to go to bed; I will need to adjust my schedule, somehow, to observe during the better times.

Jupiter was nice, with the GRS beginning to emerge during dusk and moving into better view as the evening progressed.  There were two Galilean moons (Europa & Ganymede) on one side and a third (Io) on the other, and very curiously, a fourth (Callisto) sitting below the limb at a very close separation.  I watched it move further along as the evening progressed, which confirmed it as a moon.  The orbit must be steeply inclined to our view for us to see it transit without even crossing the disk.

Saturn was nice, with more moons (total of four) appearing as it grew darker.  Cassini gap visible later in the night.  Could see multiple color bands.

The Double Double in Lyra was split, but there was some flaring in the star light.  I noticed some problem with my collimation (position of the secondary under the focuser) which I will need to fix, along with all the other projects I have going.

M57 appeared fairly large, and annular shaped, and brightened with averted vision.

M4 was very faint and hardly visible, though it was in the San Jose light dome.

M80 appeared as a hazy round glow, compact globular

M22 was a shadow of itself.

I did get a tentative split of Antares, at 177x and while using my planetary filter since I failed to remove it...

moon in 20"

During dusk last night (which lasts until almost 10pm) I had a look at the moon with the 20".  Wow!  I could not believe all the detail visible.  Crater chains, wrinkle ridges, craterlets everywhere, etc.  Used 205x & 333x mono.  Amazing.  The views removed any doubt that installing the 20" was a mistake -- I'll get much use out of its versatility.

Later on I used binoviewers.  My eyes were more relaxed though the field was narrower.  Five Plato craterlets, and the Alpine Rille was easy.  So much greyscale contrast.  Another key view, as I scanned along the outer limb: There was a prominent cone peak, looking like Kilimanjaro -- and the horizon along the other peaks and ridges did not follow an overall curve, but was peaked.  There were two large craters just before the horizon and I bet their impact caused the peaked deformation in the very curve of the crust itself.  I can't find any of this in my atlas...

I also had a look at Jupiter, which was HUGE in the field.  Very easy to see detail.  GRS was a fifth of the way through a passage: it was small, orange red, and was bifurcating the band it rode on.  There was a giant purple festoon in the equatorial area.  At full aperture the moons were disks and showed albedo (first I've noticed that).  With the 8" mask the moons tightened to smaller disks, and the amount of detail was slightly less though I didn't need to wait so long for seeing.

Around 11pm the marine layer moved in.  It will be clear the next few nights so I'm looking forward to more of this.

tech trek

Supported the Tech Trek on Tuesday night.  The sky was awful, with a few gauzy sucker holes, but it was enough to show the moon, Jupiter, Saturn (briefly) and some other things.  One of the students helped my collimate my 10" travel scope, and she learned quickly how to point it and find objects.  She spent the dusk looking at the moon on her own, then ran the scope when the other students arrived.  Later in the night I was able to find the Ring Nebula (amazing considering the conditions!), M4 -- which was a little too faint for most to see, and M13.  Stayed until 11pm.  Clara accompanied me, but she was bored -- next time I'll bring a scope for her to run on her own.

hazy night

I intended to drive down to Pinnacles last night, since some forecasts showed clear skies.  But the satellites all showed significant water vapor pouring, and it seemed later in the night it would hurt the views.  Since I had a pretty long day already I decided to drive home.  It's a frustrating sort of sky: it's blue, and the sun seems bright and you can see stars at night, but the sky is milky making it a light blue, and you just know the sky is not all it could be.

Seeing was not all that good either.  I've not yet had a night where I could go to full 20" aperture from home; nonetheless I am happy with the clean and perfect airy disks I get with the 8" mask.  Just that the view is dimmer (see M5 below).

STF1881;AB;;203;205x: Blue-white and 3-4 delta mag fainter B star, dull blue color. Well separated.
14h 47m 05.35s +00° 58' 15.2" sep 3.5 mag 6.74,8.81 Sp B9.5V dist. 132.98 pc (433.78 l.y.)
H6 51; AB;;203;205x: Orange in finder scope. In main scope a wide separation blue B, 3 delta mag

BU 348;AB;;203;667x: Seems out of round at 333x and 677x, seeing too poor for 20". Marginal
15h 01m 48.92s -00° 08' 24.9" P.A. 108 sep 0.5 mag 6.13,7.49 Sp M0.5IIb
STF 1899;AB;;203;333x: Light orange and faint (on edge of visibility) blue star, wide separation
15h 01m 35.34s -03° 09' 50.5" P.A. 67 sep 28.3 mag 6.69,10.15 Sp K2IV+K0V dist. 109.29 pc (356.5 l.y.)
A bolide just appeared!  I was looking at M5 at 20" and was just putting the 8" mask back on when I saw it travel north from behind the high branches of the meridian tree, headed toward Vega, moving fast but slower than your typical meteor, then kind of holding its glow before a quick fade out.

M5: Looked at with 8" 333x for a while, stars nicely resolved with a dark background, kind of dim but many brighter stars resolved about the core. At 20" it was significantly brighter and the core resolved more stars and added a milky glow of unresolved stars.

STF1930;AB;;203;333x: light yellow bright A, very much fainter orangish B, wide separation. Near M5.
15h 19m 18.79s +01° 45' 55.5" P.A. 36 sep 11.1 mag 5.06,10.11 Sp F8V dist. 25.38 pc (82.79 l.y.)

BU943;AB;;203;333x: Light orange and a couple of possible Bs, both faint and wide, at right angles to each other. [NOT seen.  3" separation. 10.88 mag B, might be too faint if close to A star in the poor transparency with 8"]
15h 18m 22.64s +00° 56' 21.9" P.A. 92 sep 3 mag 6.66,10.88 Sp K1III dist. 178.25 pc (581.45 l.y.)

BU32;AB;;203;333x: Light yellow A and very much fainter B, wide separation.
15h 21m 02.00s +00° 42' 55.2" P.A. 22 sep 3.4 mag 5.53,8.78 Sp K2III dist. 73.37 pc (239.33 l.y.)

Eis1;AB;;203;333x: White A with wide and much fainter B. CDSA says: "Local, solar type double with BY Dra type variable."
15h 48m 09.46s +01° 34' 18.2" P.A. 353 sep 17.7 mag 7.53,11.90 Sp G8V dist. 21.29 pc (69.45 l.y.)

Skf 1311;AB;;203;333x: Cool. Bright yellow-orange star broken up by seeing and with a water vapor glow (sky is deteriorating). Much fainter B star hanging at edge of halo.
15h 50m 17.55s +02° 11' 47.5" P.A. 300 sep 74.8 mag 5.33,10.34 Sp G8III+K0 dist. 83.82 pc (273.42 l.y.)

a few doubles in Virgo

Was out the night of 6/30 with the 20", but seeing was not good so I masked down to 8" which showed really excellent airy disks.  It was a short night, ending at 11pm, as I needed to rest for a busy day today.  It was an interesting session with a number of close pairs.

STF1757;AB;;203;205x: Close, ~2", a dull orange, ~1.5 delta mag.  It was a brighter orange in the 20" but as soon as I saw the seeing I masked down.
13h 34m 16.38s -00° 18' 49.8" P.A. 143 sep 1.68 mag 7.82,8.75 Sp K4III dist. 26.56 pc (86.64 l.y.)

STF1740;AB;;203;333x: hair split equal white pair. Suspected elongation at 205x but needed 333x to split. 667x too much power given the conditions.
13h 23m 39.16s +02° 43' 24.0" P.A. 75 sep 26.1 mag 7.13,7.39 Sp G5V+G5V dist. 15.45 pc (50.4 l.y.)
STF1734;AB;;203;333x: Blue-white A, light orange B, half delta mag, close ~1.5". Nice!
13h 20m 41.57s +02° 56' 31.9" P.A. 173 sep 1.1 mag 6.77,7.29 Sp A3V dist. 135.5 pc (442 l.y.)

STF1740;AB;;203;333x: Easy wide white A and hint or orange B.
13h 23m 39.16s +02° 43' 24.0" P.A. 75 sep 26.1 mag 7.13,7.39 Sp G5V+G5V dist. 15.45 pc (50.4 l.y.)

STF1764;AB;;203;333x: Orange and 2x fainter blue, wide. Another equal wide pair to the south.
13h 37m 44.01s +02° 22' 56.5" P.A. 32 sep 15.9 mag 6.79,8.56 Sp K2III dist. 625 pc (2038.75 l.y.)

STF1777;AB;;203;333x: Light orange and blue-green B, large magnitude difference, ~3". Pretty.
13h 43m 03.71s +03° 32' 16.4" P.A. 228 sep 2.6 mag 5.55,8.31 Sp K1III dist. 73.1 pc (238.45 l.y.)

STF1781;AB;;203;333x: White A and slightly yellow B, ~2", half delta mag
13h 46m 06.75s +05° 06' 56.1" P.A. 197.8 sep 1.02 mag 7.89,8.10 Sp F8V+F0 dist. 46.38 pc (151.29 l.y.)
LDS3101;AB;;203;333x: Light yellow A and very much fainter B, 4-5 delta mag., B is just detectable at this aperture Well separated.
13h 46m 57.12s +06° 21' 01.4" P.A. 105 sep 488.5 mag 6.40,10.18 Sp G0-1IV-V dist. 31.67 pc (103.31 l.y.)
BU115;AC;;203;333x: Slightly orange and very wide separated, much fainter bluish star just visible. Did not notice AB 1.6" 10.4 mag.
13h 45m 20.87s +09° 03' 28.6" P.A. 169 sep 107.3 mag 7.53,13.18 Sp G5 dist. 54.67 pc (178.33 l.y.)

Kui66;AB;;203;333x: Light orange and two possible pairs, both very faint on the edge of detection. One closer but still visible, very wide. The other one third more wide [Not seen -- this is 0.8" and 3 delta mag.]
14h 14m 50.85s +10° 06' 02.2" P.A. 111 sep 0.8 mag 5.44,8.43 Sp K1III dist. 81.23 pc (264.97 l.y.)

STT281;AB;;203;333x: Very fine, but well split, huge delta mag, surprise!
14h 20m 20.85s +08° 34' 56.3" P.A. 166 sep 1.5 mag 7.71,9.69 Sp G5

STF1835;A-BC;;203;333x: Yellow A and slightly yellow B, wide. Did not notice BU1111BC, 0.3" 7.4/7.7
14h 23m 22.74s +08° 26' 47.9" P.A. 195 sep 6.1 mag 5.03,6.78 Sp A0V+F2V dist. 65.92 pc (215.03 l.y.)

STF1870;AB;;203;333x: Yellow A and very much fainter B, wide ~5"? 4 delta mag. B flashes to view with seeing
14h 42m 55.10s +08° 04' 34.3" P.A. 229 sep 4.8 mag 7.46,9.98 Sp F2 dist. 198.02 pc (645.94 l.y.)

STF1873;AB;;203;333x: Light orange and light blue, wide.
14h 44m 48.13s +07° 42' 04.0" P.A. 94 sep 6.9 mag 7.96,8.35 Sp G5III dist. 232.56 pc (758.61 l.y.)

A1109;AB;*;203;333x: Both stars light yellow, big magnitude difference, ~3-4 delta mag, about 2". Not difficult
14h 42m 47.60s +06° 35' 26.4" P.A. 89.4 sep 1.75 mag 7.44,9.44 Sp F8V

BU1443;AB;;203;333x: Light yellow-orange A and much fainter blue B, wide separation.
14h 30m 45.39s +04° 46' 20.2" P.A. 195 sep 55.7 mag 6.17,10.62 Sp gK4 dist. 212.77 pc (694.06 l.y.)

I had a look at Jupiter but it is too low to be of any satisfaction, sadly.

pinnacles 6/23

First dark sky trip since October. I really needed the outing, in spite of it being a work night and a 12:30am moonrise.

I brought my low-power instruments -- a 10" f/3.7 reflector on Springsonian mount (altitude motion at eyepiece axis, so can sit and sweep horizon to zenith with 2.4° TFOV), and a brace of binoculars: 15x70 4°, 7x50 12° , and 2.1x42 28°. The mount Jamie mentioned is a home-made Sky Window or table top binocular mirror mount, which I made following plans I found online. (There is an updated design for tripod mounting, which I will make since a table may not always be available at a dark site). I made the mirror yoke adjustable, so I could keep the 4" spacing between the binocular objective and the first surface mirror -- so I could use any of my binoculars with the mount. The viewing is very comfortable, and so steady that I feel I can see further and with more detail.

The battery in my dim red LED flashlight died early in the night, and I only had my too-bright red headlamp, so I gave up note taking or referring to charts. In any case, I find it difficult to write about wide field viewing. The view is so aesthetically pleasing, so dream-like, I end up resorting to more fanciful ways of describing what I see rather than the usual Dreyer description protocol. So the following are my impressions, from memory, and not in order. Fortunately, the sky was good enough to see many dark and bright nebulae:

Barnard's E (B143, B142, & LDN 688): I returned to this several times through the night, with each of the instruments. The 10" gave the most detailed view (especially wisps of dark nebulae being blown to the east off of B143, and being able to see LDN 688 as a fairly dark forked tendril). Yet even at 2.4° the complex filled the field, so there was mostly "dark." The best view was in the 15x70s, where there were enough stars glittering around to set-off the nebula.

Region West of Alnasi (Gamma Sgr, tip of teapot spout): The is one of those views the Springsonian was made for. Enough aperture to partially resolve the two globular clusters (NGC 6528 & NGC 6522), and with enough of a field to make the Milky Way blaze and the dark nebula pop. The Milky Way in this area glows in sheets of varying intensity, rippling into the dark nebula B295. There's a small, very dark nebula to the east of NGC 6528, B298. I can't find an astrophoto to do it justice. 

Also in the Springsonian: Seeing Antares, M4, & Delta Sco in the same field, panning up to IC 4604 the Rho Ophiuchi Nebula, then over to follow the streaming flag of B44.

A random part of the sky with the 10x50s; a group of bright stars shaped like a dot-to-dot picture of a spiral galaxy. Coming upon two large dark nebula in the 15x70s in northern Cygnus. The Dumbbell Nebula in the 15x70s. All of Markarian's Chain in the Springsonian, a triangle formed by M84, M88, and M87, with more galaxies sprinkled throughout (I didn't count as I was sharing this view with our hiker guests).

Darn it, I forgot to look at the Veil!

As for the moon, I enjoyed looking at it too. I needed to move the Springsonian about ten yards since the moon was being blocked by a tree. But because I can view at horizon I could see it shortly after its rise. By now the sky was beginning to haze up, but it was great to see the moon at a different lighting angle than usual. Stayed on it for the better part of an hour before turning in.