20 september 2019

Seeing was rather poor last night, as was transparency, so I kept the 8" mask on most of the time. A pleasant night and I was happy to be out. I saw a large possum walk along the top of the back fence, not minding me at all. My hand controller went on the fritz; I think I'll replace with a single cable instead of mating to couplers. So I just spent some time at the end looking at some bright DSOs, NGC 6940, a wonderful large open cluster in Cygnus, and the amazing M15.

STF 2504 AB: 8" 333x: Blue-white star and slightly orange B, quite wide, about 2 delta mag. 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.)

HU 339 AB: 20" 667x: Detected elongation 8" 333x, but needed 667x to get better a sighting, and 20" to get a wide open split even with indifferent seeing. White stars, about half delta mag. Aperture is king.
19h 25m 03.35s +18° 38' 59.5" P.A. 246 sep 0.9 mag 9.39,9.46 Sp F0 dist. 429.18 pc (1399.99 l.y.)

STF 2569 AB: 8" 333x: Back down to 8" mask, it really dims everything down. One delta mag, 2", blue-white stars
19h 44m 47.81s +16° 48' 55.1" P.A. 357 sep 2.3 mag 8.44,9.07 Sp A0 dist. 751.88 pc (2452.63 l.y.)

STF 2585 AB-C: 8" 667x: White and blue stars, wide three to four delta mag, clean image with 8" [Did not notice elongation is A, 6.04 and 0.2"]
19h 48m 58.65s +19° 08' 31.1" P.A. 311 sep 8.3 mag 5.04,9.01 Sp A1V dist. 78.19 pc (255.06 l.y.)

BU 425 AB: 8" 667x: Very fine pair, half delta mag, well split a little over 1". [AC & AD wider and fainter, not seen.]
19h 57m 32.28s +20° 17' 40.1" P.A. 240 sep 1.4 mag 9.17,9.24 Sp B9 dist. 540.54 pc (1763.24 l.y.)

STF 2622 AB: 8" 333x: Well separated half delta mag. Part of 2 plus one system [AC 11.7 & 17.1". Ba,Bb is 10th mag & 0.2", would have been good to try for on a better night.]
20h 04m 08.99s +17° 00' 02.9" P.A. 193 sep 6 mag 8.74,9.46 Sp G5 dist. 5882.35 pc (19188.23 l.y.)

STF 2631 AB: 8" 333x: Subtle yellow and blue stars, very light. 1.5 delta mag, wide.
20h 07m 13.84s +21° 06' 13.4" P.A. 339 sep 4.6 mag 8.13,9.12 Sp G0 dist. 598.8 pc (1953.29 l.y.)

STF 2634 AB" 8" 333x: Blue-white star with 2 delta mag slightly red B, about 4" [AC 13th mag and very wide separation]
20h 09m 34.30s +16° 48' 19.2" P.A. 14 sep 4.1 mag 7.77,9.92 Sp K0 dist. 23.66 pc (77.18 l.y.)

STF 2637 AB: 8" 333x: Theta Sge. White star and slightly red B, wide separation, about 3 delta mag [Several other pairs, not observed]
20h 09m 56.61s +20° 54' 53.2" P.A. 332 sep 11.6 mag 6.56,8.85 Sp F3V dist. 45.25 pc (147.61 l.y.)

HJ 907 AB 8" 333x: Easily picked out 1 delta mag, wide 6" separation. [AC 14th mag not seen] 20h 12m 02.35s +20° 59' 06.1" P.A. 137 sep 5.7 mag 9.77,10.33 Sp K2

STF 2651 AB: 8" 333x: Clean split, nearer equal than Sky Tools data, about 1", white stars 20h 13m 44.90s +16° 09' 28.7" P.A. 279 sep 0.9 mag 8.41,8.44 Sp F8 dist. 67.11 pc (218.91 l.y.)

CHE 227 AB: 8" 333x: By strobing with averted vision can just make out faint near equal stars, pretty wide. Can hold direct once seen. 20h 14m 25.12s +16° 11' 32.5" P.A. 46 sep 5.2 mag 11.03,11.10

STT 395: 8" 667x: 16 Vul. Hairline split at 8" 333x. At 667x I see a more definite split. It appears only half delta mag, rather than the 1 delta mag in Sky Tools. Nice star.
20h 02m 01.45s +24° 56' 16.8" P.A. 127.3 sep 0.85 mag 5.83,6.19 Sp F2III dist. 67.98 pc (221.75 l.y.)

STF 2653 AB: 8" 667x: Pretty pair, pale white star and blue, very faint and small 3" separated B. Looks like a planet
20h 13m 40.56s +24° 14' 20.5" P.A. 279 sep 2.7 mag 6.72,9.18 Sp A1m dist. 91.49 pc (298.44 l.y.)

STF 2655 AB: 8" 333x: Pure white stars, half delta mag, wide about 6". [AC 10th mag and very wide]
20h 14m 04.52s +22° 13' 21.5" P.A. 3 sep 6.2 mag 7.89,7.95 Sp A2V dist. 259.74 pc (847.27 l.y.)

HO 457 AB: 8" 333x: Nice! quite a pair. Equal stars, well separated ~2", white stars. [AC 14th mag and wide not seen]20h 24m 21.08s +29° 22' 55.3" P.A. 61 sep 2 mag 9.08,9.18 Sp A0

STF 2698 AB: 8" 333x: One delta mag wide pair. 20h 33m 45.57s +28° 07' 34.3" P.A. 304 sep 4.5 mag 8.66,9.09 Sp A0

BRT 220 AB: 8" 333x: Near equal stars about 5" sep.20h 59m 45.13s +24° 17' 28.2" P.A. 132 sep 4.9 mag 9.70,9.80

STF 2739 AB: 8" 333x: Nice pair, isolated in field, seems more near equal than SkyTools data. Wide.20h 59m 48.38s +20° 04' 09.3" P.A. 253 sep 3.3 mag 9.17,9.69 Sp F0 dist. 184.84 pc (602.95 l.y.)