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Sunday 02-22-2021 Some doubles and the Moon.

Posted: Tue Feb 23, 2021 10:09 am
by John Baars
Sunday February 22 was a nice day. Just a week before people were skating on the natural ice and less than a week later all snow and ice had disappeared.With a lovely temperature of 17 degrees Celsius ( 62 F) people went out for a pleasant change in the sun from the Covid quarantine in the great outdoors. ( I write "great" outdoors, but in fact the great outdoors are quite crowded in this small country)

That evening started out well, but transparency stayed behind. The Moon had a big halo around it and I soon found out Sahara-dust was responsible for it. It happens from time to time that dust from the Sahara desert in Africa comes into Europe and covers the sky, from France to Scandinavia. Beautiful deep red sunsets and sunrises, but not very favorable for astronomy though.

Because the Moon was up I took my 120 mm Evostar out for a stroll through the skies. The Moon as a first target. Plato was not as impressive as I thought it would be, only one little craterlet within Plato visible. Rima Hadley was better visible and I could easily find the location of the Apollo 15 landingssite. The Moon is always good for a nice long walk along the terminator.
M42 of course, a bit pale, but the small double of Rigel was easy, like the close double of Alnitak. I remembered Sigma Orionis, being a multiple double. With some help from the 300X magnification the small and near companion of Sigma was revealed.

Against my better judgment, I still tried some deepsky objects like M35, NGC2392 and NGC 2420, M94, M105, M97 and even M51, very pale but detectable. A joyfull event was having to re-align on Denebola, unmistakably a Spring-Star! That corresponded nicely with the temperature at that time.

A small composition of Sigma Orionis hereby. The overall picture at 100X, The separation of Sigma and his smaller companion is exaggerated with 300X, within the 100X picture.
Sigma Orionis.png
It sure was nice to be out again!
Thanks for reading.

Re: Sunday 02-22-2021 Some doubles and the Moon.

Posted: Tue Feb 23, 2021 11:16 am
by Juno16
Really nice report John! Glad that you got out and in some really nice temperatures!

Sounds like you had a great time enjoying some favorites!

Re: Sunday 02-22-2021 Some doubles and the Moon.

Posted: Tue Feb 23, 2021 5:34 pm
by Lady Fraktor
A really nice report John :)

Re: Sunday 02-22-2021 Some doubles and the Moon.

Posted: Tue Feb 23, 2021 8:24 pm
by Makuser
Hi John. A very nice report from you with the 120 mm Evostar scope. We sometimes get the Sahara Desert sand storms here in Florida, and the sunrise sky has a brownish tint. Thanks for your interesting read report John and keep looking up.

Re: Sunday 02-22-2021 Some doubles and the Moon.

Posted: Tue Feb 23, 2021 10:24 pm
by Bigzmey
Nice all around session and beautiful sketch John!
I heard somewhere that Sahara dust blown west fertilizes Amazon rain forest and seeds rain clouds which water it.