Xi Boo 5.16.22

[pakarinen]

Trying to reset my internal clock for a dark site trip, I took out my 50mm RACI to play with last night about 2130. Plus it was clear! Nothing notable really except for a look at M3 before the moon rose. I tried to split Xi Boo, but my shortest EP is a 6mm and I had no luck at 42X. Nice, sharp stars though.

The moon was rising so I was going to go in, but decided to pull out the 102ED for a try at Xi. I didn't give it any cool down time, but Xi was resolved at 70X, quite resolved at ~120X. Separation is listed as about 5" so the gap was small.

One source says the secondary appears reddish since it's a K-class (primary is G-class) star, but the pair looked like a washed out Albireo to me. I didn't perceive any red tint.

Called it a night at 22:30. I still woke up on the early side, but I seem to be reasonably functional so we'll see how the day goes.

[Unitron48]

Nice session! Glad you could get out no matter the duration!

Some info on your double: http://www.starobserver.eu/articles/xibootes/.

Dave

[turboscrew]

The first one was your "extra-light" "RACI-scope"?

[pakarinen]

The first one was your "extra-light" "RACI-scope"?

Yes, my new $50 toy. My thought now is to use it with my ScopeTech Zero mount on my Benro photo tripod. All in, should weigh around 5 pounds and fit in a backpack. Love my binos, but also love not craning my neck or lying down to see objects above 60*. I might take it with me to the Upper Peninsula to see what it can do under Bortle 2 skies.

Or maybe I'll just stick on a scope and use it as a finder.

[Bigzmey]

Nice work on Xi Boo! When my main scope was 120ST I used 2x and 3x barlows to get high powers for splitting doubles.

[helicon]

Sounds like an interesting use of your 102mm scope and a nice double star observation Olen. Congrats on nabbing the VROD for the day!

[turboscrew]

Congrats on the VROD!

[Makuser]

Hi Olen. A very nice report on splitting the close binary double Xi Bootis with the 102ED telescope. It looks like you had a great time and also enjoyed your new RACI too. Thanks for your well written report Olen and congratulations on receiving the TSS VROD Award today.

[Unitron48]

Congrats on the VROD recognition.

Dave

[John Baars]

Congratulations on the VROD!

[Ylem]

Congratulations Olen on the VROD!

BTW, I have always wanted to build a mini dob type mount for my 50 RACI, something I could just put on a table and have some easy fun.

[jrkirkham]

Thanks for the report. I was also out looking for binaries in Bootes, with only limited luck.