Location: home,
Equipment:
This was my second session with
17:30. Right after deploying the scopes and before it gotten dark, I took a quick look at the planets.
Venus has shown a nice narrow crescent with some jaggedness along terminator, no filters. 180mm Mak/TV Delite 13mm (208x).
Jupiter: Io transit was in progress. The view was fuzzy in both scopes due to poor seeing. Still, sharp black circle of Io’s shadow was well defined, but no signs of Io itself. 180mm Mak/TV Delite 13mm (208x) has shown more details compared to SV102ED/Delite 5mm (143x).
After that I took a break to have dinner with my family and came out ~19:00. It was humid and all exposed surfaces were covered with dew. Thanks to the long, insulated dew shields, the scopes resisted fogging for the duration of the session. Still, not to push my luck I have selected lower area of the sky which happened to be Eridanus.
Eridanus doubles
STF 308 – 10.5, 10.4, 11.2, 11.2, ab0.5”, ac21.1”, cd0.4” – AC was wide split in both scopes, but the yellow color was more pronounced in 180mm Mak. Cranking power in Mak I was able to achieve touching split for AB, but no luck for CD. 180mm Mak/Delites 11mm, 9mm, 7mm (245x, 300x, 386x).
STF 315 – 8.1, 8.9, 1.3”, pale yellow pair – No luck with SV102ED. Secondary was picking in 180mm Mak/Delite 7mm (386x) at the moments of better seeing.
I 461 – 9.0, 10.6, 3.2”, orange, white – Quality of split was similar in both, SV102/Delite 3mm (238x) and 180mm Mak/Delite 13mm (208x). Split with some distance between the components at the moments of better seeing.
HJ 3545 AC – 8.5, 10.4, 43.5”, yellow, white. SV102/Delite 18.2mm (40x).
Rho2 Eri (BU 11) – 5.4, 8.9, 1.4”, yellow, white. Failed with SV102. Kept pushing power with 180mm Mak until at 900x (I know right?! ) with Delite 3mm I finally saw the secondary picking out at the moments of better seeing.
BU 527 – 8.2, 8.9, 12.5, ab1.3”, ac59.2”, all white – AB – tight clean split, uneven pair; C – faint dot at distance. 180mm Mak/Delite 13mm (208x).
STF 356 – 8.2, 10.3, 15.4”, yellow, brown. Looks nice in both scopes, wide apart in 180mm Mak. SV102/Delite 15mm (48x). 180mm Mak/Delite 18.2mm (148x).
STF 357 – 9.6, 10.8, 8.6”, orange, silver. Better colors in 180mm Mak. SV102/Delite 13mm (55x), 180mm Mak/Delite 18.2mm (148x).
STF 358 – 9.0, 11.6, 15.2”, yellow, silver. Secondary resolved as fuzzy spec with averted vision in SV102/Delite 3mm (238x). Secondary is a direct vision sharp dot in 180mm Mak/Delite 18.2mm (148x).
HJ 3554 – 8.8, 10.1, 21.5”, yellow, silver. Secondary was fuzzy spec with AV in SV102/Delite 5mm (143x). Wide apart, sharp view in 180mm Mak/Delite 18.2mm (148x).
STF 365 AB – 10.3, 10.8, 13”, white pair. Wide split in 180mm Mak/Delite 18.2mm (148x).
Asteroids
While having a blast splitting doubles with two scopes I was keeping an eye on Taurus. By 21:30 it has finally cleared the giant ash tree in the neighbor’s yard, and I could finally catch a few asteroids on my list. 7” of Mak