Location: Anza desert site,
Equipment: Celestron 9.25” Edge HD
EPs: Baader Q turret loaded with
Vixen SLV 25mm, 50 deg (94x, 2.5mm exit pupil, 0.53 deg TFV).
Vixen SLV 15mm, 50 deg (157x, 1.5mm exit pupil, 0.32 deg TFV).
Vixen SLV 9mm, 50 deg (261x, 0.9mm exit pupil, 0.19 deg TFV).
Vixen SLV 6mm, 50 deg (392x, 0.6mm exit pupil, 0.13 deg TFV).
Last Friday Clear Outside
More clouds arrived after sunset. Fortunately, they have stayed in the eastern half of the sky so I could observe mostly uninterrupted in the western half. I actually enjoyed their changing patterns illuminated by the bright Moon, and dynamic lighting of the night desert they have created by passing over the Moon.
Bright Moon called for a doubles session. I have looked for a constellation away from Moon and clouds with a few bright stars available for navigation. That happened to be Ophiuchus.
19:40. Ophiuchus Doubles
STF 2012 – 8.8, 11.7, 24.2”, yellow, silver (94x).
STF 2018 – 9.3, 11.0, 19.5”, yellow, silver (94x).
STF 3103 – 9.1, 10.8, 24.5”, orange, silver (157x).
STF 2038 – 9.1, 11.3, 17.7”, orange, gray (157x).
STF 2106 – 7.1, 8.2, 12.4, ab0.8”, ac71.7”, AB - tight uneven yellow pair, touching split at the moments of better seeing (261x, 392x), C – faint gray spec some distance away (157x).
STF 2105 – 9.2, 10.5, 29”, pale orange, silver (94x).
BAL 243 – 8.7, 10.4, 12.4”, copper, silver – nice colors (94x).
STF 2113 – 8.4, 10.4, 5.1”, white, silver (157x).
BU 357 – 8.6, 9.9, 1.4” – white main with faint sidekick, clean split at 261x.
STF 2123 – 9.8, 10.0, 18.1”, yellow pair (94x).
STF 2143 – 9.1, 10.9, 28.5”, yellowish, bluish (94x).
STT 326 – 8.0, 12.1, 18.1”, white, gray (261x).
STF 2159 – 8.5, 9.4, 26.4”, yellow, white (94x).
STF 2170 – 9.4, 10.0, 7.1, ab3.3”, ac189.3” – yellow AB and white C are a wide pair at low powers, A and B are resolved at 261x.
STF2176 – 9.5, 10.3, 9.5, ab16.8”, ac89.9”, all white (94x).
CLL 11 – 8.6, 10.3, 56.2”, yellow, silver (94x).
22:22. Ophiuchus was getting low to the haze in the west, so I have switched to the Aquila above.
Aquila Doubles
STF 2389 – 8.9, 11.9, 31.9”, white, gray (94x).
STT 362 AB – 8.3, 11.9, 7.6” – had to go up to 392x to resolve with averted vision faint grayish companion next to the bright yellow main.
STF 2396 – 8.1, 11.3, 10.1, 10.8, ab76.5”, ac198.5”, cd105.8”, golden, 3x white – the main attraction of this wide quadruple is the rich color of the primary (94x).
STF 2404 – 6.9, 7.8, 3.6” – beautiful pair of uneven golden stars (157x).
STF 2408 – 8.5, 9.4, 2.3”, white silver – clean tight split (261x).
STTA 176 – 7.5, 7.5, 10.8, 11.0, ab94.3”, ac155.3”, cd81.8”, all white – neat quadruple which forms parallelogram with fainter pair of equal stars on top (C and D) and brighter pair at the bottom (A and B).
STF 2414 – 8.2, 11.2, 17.1”, white, gray (157x).
STF 2424 – 5.3, 9.3, 21” – beautiful pair with rich colors: lemon (A) and blue (B) (94x).
23:30 Binoviewing
This time I brought my binoviewers, and after getting a good share of doubles with mono setup, I have switched to bino mode for Moon and Jupiter.
Moon was nearly full but the terminator was still visible on the edge. BVs deliver fantastic views with pair of 15mm SLVs (~200x). Fine details just popped into the view, observing with two eyes was very relaxing, and splitting light between two eyes dimmed the Moon brightness.
Next, I looked at Jupiter. Seeing was not good, but I have managed to increase power to ~350x with pair of 8.5mm Pentax XFs. Jupiter was gigantic! While colors of Jupiter belts were washed out by intense glare, at the moments of better seeing I was able to resolve four main belts and shading of North and South Polar Regions. Io shadow was in transit and appeared as a sharp little black disk. When I am observing Jupiter with mono setup it always appears as a flat disk. With binoviewers it has appeared as a glob.
23:56. I wanted to continue binoviewing but the clouds made a mad dash and overtook the sky, ending up the session.
