Location: home,
Equipment:
Had to wait out some rain and clouds last week. I thought I was in clear yesterday evening but the moment I got out to observe, high patchy clouds started to roll in. Does not matter, with a bit of patience I was able to pick my targets through sucker holes.
Thin crescent of Moon was up. I planned to take a look with my scopes, but got involved with doubles and did not manage at the end. However, I would take frequent breaks from the
Constellation of Hydra is large but lacks bright stars. From my light polluted home location, with naked eye I can barely make out Hydra’s head. The rest looks like empty area. However, it has many colorful, neat, and difficult doubles which stand well to the light pollution and deserve closer look.
Hydra
BU 102 – 7.1, 10.3, 3.2” – faint tick of secondary was detectable near bright white main at the moments of better seeing. 180mm Mak, detected at 245x, confirmed at 208x and 300x.
STF 1213 – 9.8, 11.5, 6”, yellow, white. – 180mm Mak (208x).
BAL 2815 – 8.2, 10.9, 10.5”, white, silver – 180mm Mak (84x).
STF 1216 – 6.9, 7.9, 0.5” – FAILED. Could not get a good view of airy disk due to bad seeing.
J 1520 – 8.0, 10.4, 6.6”, yellow, bluish – 180mm Mak, close split at 84x, confirmed at148x.
STF 1226 – 8.5, 10.5, 2.7”, yellow, white – 180mm Mak (300x).
STF 1233 (A 551) – 7.0, 7.1, 10.5, ab0.3”, ac18.3” – faint silvery dot of C near bright white main is easily detected at the lowest power. To my delight I was also able to observe elongated airy disk of AB at 300x and 386x in 180mm Mak.
STF 1264 – 9.4, 9.5, 6.4”, white pair – 180mm Mak (84x).
Following four doubles had faint and unassuming secondaries which took various degrees of difficulty to detect. However, just by chance all four binaries had beautiful richly colored orange primaries worth seeing:
STF 1267 – 8.2, 11.5, 10.9”, orange, gray. Secondary detected with averted vision at 300x in 180mm Mak.
STT 194 – 7.4, 10.5, 12.6”, orange, silver. 180mm Mak (148x).
HJ 2468 – 8.0, 11, 24.2”, orange, silver. 180mm Mak (84x).
STF 1286 – 9.0, 10.8, 29.1”, orange, silver. 180mm Mak (84x).
A 3067 – 8.4, 10.4, 1.8” – FAILED.
BU 587 AB – 5.8, 7.4, 1.2” – white unequal pair, split by hair at the moments of better seeing. 180mm Mak (386x).
BU 407 – 7.8, 10.3, 11.4, ab6”, ac91.5”, all white – Neat triple. AC is easy wide split. B is much closer to A, appears fainter and harder to resolve but has the same PA as C. 180mm Mak (84x).
A 2752 – 9.0, 11, 5.3”, white, gray – faint secondary resolved with averted vision at 300x in 180mm Mak.
STF 1292 AB – 9.3, 9.5, 5.9”, white pair - 180mm Mak (84x).
BU 24 – 8.0, 8.6, 1.2” – white pear-shaped airy disk at 300x in 180mm Mak.
BU 103 – 7.7, 9.8, 3.2”, white, gray – fuzzy dot of secondary popped in at the moments of better seeing. 180mm Mak (300x).
Congrats on the