.... continuing from my last observations on the 29th March.
There was a small window of opportunity last night before high cloud rolled in. Seeing was 7 improving to 8/10 and transparency about 8/10. A bright 18 day Moon was about 50 degrees away.
HR4661 (mag6.5&8.2@1.9") - difficult but straight forward split at 160X. The primary was yellow and the very faint, very close in companion a pale white.
Gamma Corvi (mag2.6&9.7@1.1") - failed to split this difficult pair. I tried higher magnifications but it was obvious that the seeing was not good enough. I also suspect the pair requires more aperture to resolve given the large delta magnitude. I'll try again at our Astro camp weekend in a fortnight where we will be at a higher altitude and under pristine dark skies.
Scope Vixen NA140SS with LVW5 giving 160X.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tinderboxsky
... to continue my previous interrupted observations on the 11th March:
I was out last night too - excellent seeing at 8, perhaps even 9/10 and 8/10 transparency in the clear gaps between slow moving banks of very high thin cloud. I had to wait patiently for the skies to clear beneath Corvus. Unfortunately the next band of cloud rolled over before I could complete all of the observations. As Patrick noted, the 11.5 day Moon only 45 degrees away meant the sky was quite bright.
I revisited HD 105590 first as I was interrupted at this point last time. The tight triangle of stars stood out nicely. The brightest a yellow/white, next a paler white and the 10 mag star a very pale white.
HD 107501: (mag 10&10@5”) at 160X - very pale, almost equal stars. Difficult to pick colour, perhaps a hint of yellow.
HD 106955 (mag 7&10.7@3.4”) at 160X - white/yellow primary with extremely faint companion perhaps a little washed out by the bright Moon.
HD 103817 (mag 8&8@3.6”) at 160X - equal yellow/white pair like a set of car headlamps off in the far distance.
HR 4758 (mag 7&9.5@2.2”) at 160X - yellow primary with fainter whitish companion close by. Extremely faint nearby star just visible, say mag11 approx.
... then the next band of high level cloud rolled in. It was time to pack up with two targets outstanding. I suspect the last target, Gamma Corvi might be beyond my 140mm aperture. I am attending an astronomy camp at a pristine dark site in Tassie at higher altitude in a fortnight and I’ll try for these last two observations then.
Scope: Vixen NA140SS and LVW5 eyepiece for 150X. Star hopping navigation using Sky Safari Plus.
Thanks for the list Joe. It is certainly the most time to date that I have spent exploring Corvus.
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