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Old 27-07-2020, 09:08 AM
Tropo-Bob (Bob)
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Something Quirky

I followed Rigel into the sunlit sky this morning, with the use of an old EQ3 mount and my Orion 80mm Triplet. I tried to find its companion with 120x (4mm Radian), but to no avail. I even tried orange and red filters (23A & 25) to filter out the blue sky. I also tried lower magnifications, as the seeing is actually worse during the day than night.

Rigel is easily visible with the scope. I am now wondering if I can find a range of bright stars (mag 3 & brighter) to see how difficult they will be to view in daylight.

I am still tracking now at 10am. Rigel is past the meridian and it is a bit warm in the sunlight. Next time, I will aim to deliberately be in the shade.
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Old 28-07-2020, 08:17 AM
Tropo-Bob (Bob)
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I followed Mirzam (The announcer to Sirius) into the daytime today with my Vixen 115mm. Being ‘only’ Mag 2.0, it was somewhat more difficult than Rigel. It was akin to viewing Venus in the daytime with an unaided eye, for once seen, it was obvious enough, but there were occasions when I had just a bit of difficulty finding it. My EQ tracking was slightly off, so I had a few moments of panic when I came back to the scope after 20 mins.

I used a variety of Eyepieces, but thought the 17mm (52x) was best, however they all showed Beta Canis Major ok, even a 36mm. I also tried an orange filter, but it made it more difficult to see.

I finished about 8am, by manually moving the scope approximately 1 degree north, and then pushing it down to find Sirius, which was very easily seen.
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Old 29-07-2020, 07:35 AM
Tropo-Bob (Bob)
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I did it again, this time I followed the mag 2.6 Arneb (Alpha Leporis) till 8am. There was a haze in the air from cane fires last night and on rising at 5.30am, I noted that the stars did not appear as bright as the previous morning. The haze continued to the end of my viewing.

I used my 4” ED F11 with a Vixen NPL 30mm Plossl. I did switch to a non-branded 17mm plossl and Arneb seemed equally visible in each EP. At the end of the session, I tried to switch to a 16mm Brandon, but failed to find the focal point. I did switch back to the 30mm after first noting its focal point. Lesson here is to note the focal point of the Brandon so as to make such changes easier in future.

When periodically coming back to the scope, I found Arneb somewhat difficult to detect. My assumption is that against the featureless blue sky, I had problems with correctly focusing my eye. I was also troubled my floaters etc. Nevertheless, I always found it eventually and when found it was not difficult to see.
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Old 30-07-2020, 07:20 AM
Tropo-Bob (Bob)
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Partial success today in trying to track Mag 3.0 Omicron Canis Majoris into the daylight sky with my Tax FC-100D. Conditions were good with no haze and for once, I had my tracking spot on, so it was not a case of “Where’s Wally”.

Sunrise here was approximately at 6.45 and I last saw the star at 7.10ish. At that stage I was pleased at how visible the star was and thought this is going to be easy. However, coming back 5 mins later, I could not find it despite persisting. My last act was to slew the tracking from side to side in the hope of seeing the star in motion.

So where to from here? I will aim to track the double Gamma Leonis into the daylight. The primary is magnitude 2.2, which should be feasible since I have already successfully tracked a mag 2.6 star into the daylight. The secondary is mag 3.5, which although vastly more challenging, I will have the primary star as a marker beside it. However, I wonder if I will be able to resolve the double easily in the daylight as the seeing conditions may be worse. I will have to wait a few months for Leo to be suitably positioned in the morning sky.

Meanwhile, I will just go back to following Mars into the daylight. The local seeing here before dawn is often at its best.
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Old 30-07-2020, 01:21 PM
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Tinderboxsky (Steve)
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Interesting project Bob.
I suppose southern stars such as Rigel Kentaurus and Acrux are difficult for you to access. Both doubles are easily resolved in daylight for me down here.
I find Antares and other brighter coloured stars quite spectacular against a blue sky.
Have you bagged all of the naked eye planets as day time observations? Saturn was the hardest for me as it needs to be well past quadrature in its orbit when a daylight observation is possible and is very faint against the bright sky.
Another challenge is to observe all 5 naked eye planets on the same day. I have managed this twice now.
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Old 04-08-2020, 07:16 AM
Tropo-Bob (Bob)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tinderboxsky View Post
Interesting project Bob.
I suppose southern stars such as Rigel Kentaurus and Acrux are difficult for you to access. Both doubles are easily resolved in daylight for me down here.
I find Antares and other brighter coloured stars quite spectacular against a blue sky.
Have you bagged all of the naked eye planets as day time observations? Saturn was the hardest for me as it needs to be well past quadrature in its orbit when a daylight observation is possible and is very faint against the bright sky.
Another challenge is to observe all 5 naked eye planets on the same day. I have managed this twice now.
Hi Steve,
I have always wished to see Rigel Kentaurus and Acrux during the day. However, they are normally daylight during our wet season. Now that I am retired, I may do better.

Seeing orange stars against the blue sky is a good tip. I never thought of that!

I have seen Venus, Mars and Jupiter during the day. My main reason for finding Jupiter is to see shadow events that occur during the afternoon. I am keen to see Mercury during daylight, but I had not even thought of Saturn.
5 planets during the day, yes, I have seen that a few times in the evening, though it is relatively rare.

I now know why I lost sight of the Mag 3.0 Omicron Canis Majoris, my motor drive has developed an intermittent fault and stopped tracking. I did attempt this again this morning, however it became overcast around dawn.
Nevertheless, Mars did look great today with its ice-white pole cap and several marking being visible. The planet is still not “full”, but is appearing larger.
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