The Recent spate of posting older reports has spurred me to start building my reports in OneNote then posting here, so I have a record of them locally as well. Of course, this means that my observations are now in many, many places - SkySafari (and Live Sky), the Access Database that I use the exports from Livesky with, and now OneNote, in a more verbose form. Because that's not confusing! Anyway, on with the show.
Date: 09.19.2021
Location: Home
First clear night in a while, and of course, it is nearly a full moon. Oh well, make lemonade and all that.
Getting colder at night now.
Double Stars were taken from the "Colored Doubles" list that is downloadable in SkySafari, which I believe is mostly built from the RASC Handbook's Colored Double Stars List
Jupiter - Bright tonight, belts visible in the south. North - not so much. Europa and Ganymede to the east, Callisto to the west - Io is behind the planet currently. Testing variable polarizer, which is a washout - not working so well. Put in the 82A and the 11mm and there are some interesting features appearing in the cloud belts, both north and south. The southern belt has a dip in it to the east. (for lack of a better term); The in-between belts have some color to them - they are appearing as a light beige-ish to me.
Moon - The moon and it's components. Using a variable polarizer. Some amazing mountain ranges in the south. Very beautiful. Same for the northeast - all on the visible limb. Moon is not nearly as bright with the filter, I appreciate that. Makes picking these details easier. Tried the 82A - moon too much for it - left a burn on my retina! Variable is the better for this night. Not much of a shocker there. I love the HUGE spray pattern coming out of crater Tycho. Very cool. Similar on crater Copernicus. I assume those would end up being mountain ranges on the surface, leading into and out of the craters. Found a really neat shadow on the north of the moon - not sure what it is casting it, but it is large. Whatever it is, is really close to the North West limb. Using the 6.7 on it doesn't resolve it any further.
{The following three are just specific observations I entered for specific craters that I could identify}
Aristrchus - Very striking feature. A white splotch in the middle of a lot of grey. Some nice craters and ranges to it's SE.
Tycho - Nice spray pattern on this crater.
Copernicus - Also has a nice spray pattern.
Dabih Major (Beta1 Capricorni) {Double Star in Capricorn}- Wow - nice pair - large separation between the two - the leading star is a dimmer blue, "ice" blue, a very nice hue. The trailing star is a brighter orange. The orangeish star almost looks like it has a double as well- like a growth hanging off it. But that could be my scope and vision. Seems to fade in and out. Probably air waves.
70 Ophiuchi{Double Star in Ophiuchus} - Wow - they are a tight double - both are orange in color, very tight together. The dimmer of the two lies I want to say to the NE? but could be wrong on that one. {SkySafari says the separation is 6.7"}
Neptune - Small and dim, stellar in appearance. Has a "guide" star leading it to the west. Bumping up to the 11 doesn't help the planet much. Still cool to see. Wonder if it was a little washed out due to the (nearly) full moon.
Tau1 Aquarii {Double Star in Aquarius} - Bright main star, compared to the companion, which sits
Alfirk (Beta Cephi) {Double Star in Cephus} - Wow. That's a bright blue for the main star. The companion is split, and is leading to the west. I think it is also blue, but it is not nearly as bright, nor as striking.
I also popped over to M31, but did not log it - it was very prominent, even with the (nearly) full moon.
It was getting a little chilly at this point, and Monday (today) is a work day, so I packed it up and went back inside. All-in-all, a good night that I will take.