29 june 2021

Over the last several weeks I've been able to finally mount my 6-inch f/15 refractor. I've been able to use it several times for solar viewing, white light with a Herschel wedge, and prominences with a Quark (both of which are really great). Last night was the first dark sky time with the new mounting. Seeing started off poor but did improve, and there was a high thin haze. Very good session overall. I'm still learning how to drive the telescope and learn its quirks. There is some shakiness in it still, which surprises me, so I need to figure out if it's the mount, tripod, or just the long focal length tube.

STF 2084 AB: 156; 285x: Zeta Her. A lot of diffraction but there is a persistent bulge, brightening to a split, at the first diffraction ring. Suspected at 175x. I would not call this a successful split, it was too messy.
16h 41m 17.16s +31° 36' 09.8" P.A. 105.20 sep 1.4 mag 2.95,5.40 Sp G1IV dist. 10.72 pc (34.97 l.y.)

STF 2101 AB: 156; 175x: Fine white pair, 1 delta mag, well separated B
16h 45m 48.14s +35° 37' 50.5" P.A. 48.00 sep 4.1 mag 7.51,9.39 Sp F6V dist. 58.82 pc (191.87 l.y.)

STF 2104 AB: 156; 175x: White pair, 1 delta mag, wide 

16h 48m 41.48s +35° 55' 19.3" P.A. 18.00 sep 5.7 mag 7.49,8.78 Sp F2 dist. 172.71 pc (563.38 l.y.)

STF 2161 AB: 156; 175x: Rho Her.  Lovely cream-white stars, half delta mag, nice split 

17h 23m 40.97s +37° 08' 45.3" P.A. 321.00 sep 4.1 mag 4.50,5.40 Sp B9.5III dist. 120.63 pc (393.5 l.y.)

STT 329 AB: 156; 175x: Wide white and orange stars, 1.5 delta

17h 24m 27.11s +36° 57' 06.9" P.A. 12.00 sep 33.5 mag 6.35,9.88 Sp G5III+F0V dist. 230.41 pc (751.6 l.y.)

STF 2107 AB: 156; 175x: ! Extremely fine hairline split with seeing, 1.5 delta mag white stars.  Obvious split with 285x.  Physical with a 274 year orbit, now at apastron.  1.1" at discovery in 1828.

16h 51m 50.10s +28° 39' 58.7" P.A. 106.40 sep 1.4 mag 6.90,8.50 Sp F5IV dist. 58.41 pc (190.53 l.y.)

STF 2095 AB: 156; 175x: Rather wide, 1 delta mag stars, yellow color A.

16h 45m 05.23s +28° 21' 28.9" P.A. 160.00 sep 5.3 mag 7.36,9.16 Sp F7III dist. 215.98 pc (704.53 l.y.)

NGC 6210: Oval shape with a slight bulge on one side, light green-grey color, thicker around the outer edge though edge itself is slightly diffuse, brightens when blinking it, 

STF 2094 AB: 156; 285x: Snowman at 175x, hairline split at 285x.  Noticed wide faint C (11.70 mag) at 285x.   

16h 44m 10.57s +23° 31' 02.8" P.A. 76.00 sep 1.0 mag 7.48,7.87 Sp F5III dist. 156.49 pc (510.47 l.y.)

STF 2079 AB: 156; 175x: Wide, white, near equal.

16h 39m 36.33s +23° 00' 06.1" P.A. 91.00 sep 16.7 mag 7.56,8.13 Sp F0 dist. 414.94 pc (1353.53 l.y.)

STF 2085 AB: 156; 175x: 2 delta mag, pretty wide.

16h 42m 26.09s +21° 35' 34.3" P.A. 310.00 sep 6.0 mag 7.38,9.17 Sp A0IV dist. 190.48 pc (621.35 l.y.)

STF 2109 AB: 156; 175x: Wide, faint, near orange star.

16h 53m 45.78s +21° 10' 22.6" P.A. 312.00 sep 5.9 mag 7.52,10.30 Sp K0 dist. 188.68 pc (615.47 l.y.)

PRY 2 AB: 156; 175x: ! Wow!  3 delta mag B star just outside blue-green A's diffraction ring.  Seen at both 175x and 285x.  J.J.M. Perry.  Uncertain in WDS, but from the Gaia EDR3 data I find a 23% parallax overlap, 2030 AU weighted distance, with the primary star 3.31 primary star solar mass vs 1.61 for the secondary -- so it should bind at 2030 AU -- so it is likely gravitationally bound.  Gaia lacks the radial velocity otherwise I could confirm it.

17h 04m 41.34s +19° 35' 56.7" P.A. 227.00 sep 1.8 mag 6.19,9.29 Sp A0IV dist. 176.68 pc (576.33 l.y.)

BU 130 AB: 156; 285x: 90 Her.  Orange star with one part of the airy disk persistently brighter but which does not resolve to a disk.  Tried up to 380x.  The slightly brighter primary made this more difficult than PRY 2.  This was one I wanted to try since Burnham discovered it with his 6-inch.  He writes: 90 Her.  "…a beautiful pair, even with small aperture.  The components have a striking difference in color -- golden and blue….[due to common proper motion] there is little doubt of its being a physical system."  WDS uncertain after 49 measures.  Unfortunately Gaia lacks the parallax measurements for the B star.

17h 53m 18.03s +40° 00' 28.6" P.A. 110.00 sep 1.6 mag 5.28,8.76 Sp K3III dist. 108.46 pc (353.8 l.y.)

STF 2282 AB: 156; 175x: White stars, 1 delta mag, good separation

18h 06m 30.47s +40° 21' 39.6" P.A. 83.00 sep 2.7 mag 7.93,9.43 Sp A1V dist. 512.82 pc (1672.82 l.y.)

BU 1127 AB: 156; 175x: Notched elongation at all powers. 

18h 02m 30.89s +44° 14' 02.6" P.A. 39.00 sep 0.7 mag 7.31,9.20 Sp F5V dist. 81.3 pc (265.2 l.y.)

STF 2129 AB: 156; 175x: Wide and 2 delta mag B.  Not physical.

17h 08m 51.86s +69° 25' 10.4" P.A. 206.00 sep 9.8 mag 9.99,10.61 Sp G5

OP Her: Nice light orange