28 october 2020

The night of the 27th I observed the moon with my 6-inch refractor, mostly lovely views of the moon.  I started to have intermittent tracking problems; the motors make a kind of electrical crackling noise, and the RA wheels will turn but they seem to not affect the worm.  I don't know if there are bad teeth in the main gear or if the smaller wheel is loose.  I always thought this mount was too small for the scope.  Frustrating.  I did have it working long enough to see the dark part of the moon occult a bright star, it's fun to watch it just wink out suddenly, like a light switch turned off.

I observed last night with the 20-inch.  The seeing was predicted to be better, but it wasn't, so for most of the session I used the 8-inch mask.  Transparency was hurt by wildfire smoke which came up from southern California and puddled over the Bay Area.  A lot of easy pairs but toward 10:30pm I switched to full aperture with the apodising screen for a couple challenges.  Also the nearly full moon.  At the end of the night I had pretty fantastic views of the moon and Mars through binoviewers.  So it was a good night all the same.  And at least the tracking worked.  I can't observe without it now.

HEI 286 AB: 203; 205x: B is very faint, averted vision only and very close, but able to see it despite the moon and wildfire smoke in the air.

21H 32M 34.77S +13° 50' 14.6" P.A. 268 SEP 2.2 MAG 10.81,12.40

STF 3112 AB: 203; 205x: Light yellow-orange A and deeper dull orange B, wide, ~2 delta mag.  Physical. 
21H 34M 29.74S +09° 29' 58.9" P.A. 239 SEP 7.1 MAG 7.96,10.32 SP G0 DIST. 78.37 PC (255.64 L.Y.)

HJ 1661 AB: 203; 205x: Slight magnitude difference, wide, slightly yellow red.  Physical.
21H 35M 56.46S +26° 22' 10.6" P.A. 85 SEP 11.9 MAG 9.28,9.30 SP F8 DIST. 223.71 PC (729.74 L.Y.)

HJ 1668 AB: 203; 205x: ~1 delta mag, wide, slightly yellow-orange A
21H 37M 24.08S +23° 39' 30.0" P.A. 37 SEP 7.9 MAG 9.04,10.44 SP F8

STT 455 AB: 203; 205x: ~2 delta mag, wide white stars.  Physical

21H 56M 40.43S +16° 07' 25.3" P.A. 271 SEP 10 MAG 8.57,10.29 SP F8 DIST. 83.82 PC (273.42 L.Y.)

 

STF 2849 AB: 203; 205x: Very fine, ~2 delta, ~2".  A is blue-white and B is similar but much fainter, a very fine point. Nice. 

21H 57M 43.20S +20° 14' 29.9" P.A. 244 SEP 1.7 MAG 8.69,10.37 SP G5 DIST. 123 PC (401.23 L.Y.)

GCB 63 AB: 203; 205x: Not found.  Should have been able to see but did not.  Last observation was in 1970 and there have only been 3 observations. 
22H 04M 00.00S +24° 09' 00.0" P.A. 2 SEP 1.6 MAG 10.50,11.00

STF 2859 AB: 203; 205x: Pretty tough for tonight's poor transparency.  Faint, slight magnitude difference, ~4".  Brighter white pair on edge of field. 

22H 05M 58.84S +20° 36' 20.6" P.A. 344 SEP 3.8 MAG 10.01,10.65 SP G0

STF 2895 AB: 203; 205x: In a trail of three doubles across the field.  This is the middle pair, ~1 delta mag, wide.  To the south is a near equal and faint pair, to the north is the widest separation pair with a slight mag difference. 

22H 20M 44.74S +24° 57' 24.7" P.A. 49 SEP 14 MAG 8.49,9.95 SP K0III-IV DIST. 310.56 PC (1013.05 L.Y.)

CHE 439 AB: 203; 205x: B is wide and faint, seen with averted vision, ~2 delta mag. 
23H 22M 30.20S +41° 46' 03.2" P.A. 17 SEP 6.6 MAG 8.80,10.30 SP F2

STF 3010 BC: 203; 205x: Seen with averted vision and can then can hold.  It has nearly the same PA as the AB pair, so all three stars are in a line, though BC's separation is far tighter.  A very nice set, and surprisingly not physical.

23H 23M 30.68S +45° 47' 18.6" P.A. 125 SEP 11.9 MAG 9.50,12.50 SP K8 DIST. 43.78 PC (142.81 L.Y.)

STF 2987 AB: 203; 205x: Nice white and blue-white pair, ~3 delta mag, wide ~4" 
23H 10M 21.28S +49° 01' 06.0" P.A. 154 SEP 3.4 MAG 7.42,10.41 SP G1V DIST. 45.39 PC (148.06 L.Y.)

A 198 AB: 203; 333x: Hairline split at best moments, slight mag difference (more than the data suggests)
23H 13M 07.83S +46° 22' 13.0" P.A. 344 SEP 0.6 MAG 10.06,10.10 SP K0

BU 1221 AB: 508; 205x: B is faint and close, but still seen well, ~2", ~3 delta mag.  
23H 27M 59.12S +42° 25' 07.0" P.A. 147 SEP 2.1 MAG 9.94,11.30 SP A5 DIST. 1041.67 PC (3397.93 L.Y.)

A 109 AB: 508; 333x: Hairline split at 205x, but a better look and wider split with 333x.  It seems closer than the 0.9" in the data.  Noticeable delta mag, more than one tenth. 

23H 29M 04.80S +43° 23' 50.0" P.A. 312 SEP 0.9 MAG 10.12,10.36 SP A2

STF 3024 AB: 508; 205x: V389 And.  ~1 delta mag and ~5", slightly blue-white stars.  Physical.

23H 32M 01.31S +43° 49' 20.5" P.A. 309 SEP 4.9 MAG 8.63,9.35 SP A0 DIST. 381.68 PC (1245.04 L.Y.)

ES 110 AB: 508; 205x: A pretty triple, AB is close ~5" and ~1 delta mag, C is 3 times further and 90-degree difference in PA, about the same mag as B
23H 33M 37.33S +49° 19' 03.3" P.A. 36 SEP 5.3 MAG 10.16,11.20

COU 2672 AB: 508; 333x: Extremely fine hairline split at best moments, significant delta mag, very close. 

23H 35M 08.64S +49° 08' 03.7" P.A. 291 SEP 0.6 MAG 10.20,10.60