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My best chance to revisit the brighter ones on the list was on Wednesday 10 -11 pm EAST, Feb 7th.Conditions were 8/10 transparency and 8/10 seeing. All reports are Dob 10” F5 and 13mm Hyperion ep unless otherwise mentioned.
1. Delta Cor. nice contrast at 3 and 8.5 mag and an interesting colour contrast of a yellow and orange pair, widely separated.
2. STF 1659. A beautiful field with what appears an isosceles triangle of faint stars, with hints of yellow and grey encased in a larger triangle of two orange and one bluish star. This sits at the bottom of a Y-shaped group of mag 6 stars about 3°north of the naked-eye double of Delta and Eta Cor which leads to what I see as a thin dagger of mag 8 stars, containing STF 1664, a wide double and the handle of the ‘dagger’ that points to the striking Sombrero galaxy.
3. STF 1669. This is close to the previous double and easily split at medium power. A striking equal yellow pair. Failed to notice third star.
4. STF 1604, On my first visit to this stunning stellar triangle I was surprised at the neatness of this tight triangle of stars with the main white star outshining the others. A little hard to star hop to but worth the effort!
5. Burnham 920 and 921 not split.
6. H4481 not found yet.
7. Bonus double: Zeta Cor. This 5/13 mag pair sep 11.2” A wide yellow and orange pair cradled in an usual semicircle star field
Ambiance: pleasant windless night with little dew. A mooing cow repeated a plaintive call to the night air and during my last half hour four naval helicopters with landing lights on the ready disturbed my tranquillity. Happy hunting to all star splitters and long may the clear skies last. Eugene
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