Observation Report: 11 December 2007

[goober (Doug)]

Got home from work at 11pm (seriously). Mars was up and glowing, skies looked steady. I thought tomorrow is a write off anyway, get the scope out!

Observed for an hour from midnight until 1am.

Seeing: 7/10
Transparency: 5/10

Grabbed the 3.5, 5 and 7mm Naglers, along with the 2.5x Powermate, for a little Mars.... that turned into a lot of double stars in Orion.

Mars: my best view of the season so far, but it wasn't much. At least this time I could see a steady pink disk, rather than the bubbly, boiling mass I had been seeing. Best view seemed to be at 154x - 192x. A band of dark material could be made out right across the "bottom" of the planet. I could see the hint of a polar cap on the opposite hemisphere. However, my Martian "marsography" is so poor, I can't tell you if I did see the cap or not. I had much better views in 2003 when Mars was much bigger, higher in the sky, and I had a terrific 8" reflector.

Rigel: easy again - no challenge. Scintillating primary and faint magnitude 7 secondary, around 10" away.

Eta Orionis - a challenge thrown out by SkySearcher. Wow, this is a nice pair. A dumbbell shape at 154x - two stars of approximately equal magnitude. Definite double at 192x and cleanly split at 270x. Tight pair - must be under 2", which pleases me with my little 4". Stars appears to be a white colour - but not pure... hint of lilac? Amazing how you start groping for weird colours once you start looking at these things!

Theta Orionis - the Trapezium - 6 stars! Although F was incredibly difficult. I never know exactly E/F are are so I sketched my view and compared later. Definitely bagged the six. Tick off that box....

Sigma Orionis - 4 stars visible at all powers. The magnitude 9 star is steadily there, but very faint in my scope.

Alnitak - looks a lot like Eta Orionis. Hint of a split at 154x, cleanly split at 270x.

[§AB]

Awwllrrigght nice catch with the trapezium! I would've gone outside aswell if I only wasn't stoned from a combo of work and chronic sleep deprivation...

I can now magnify 714x with my scope so is there any really tight pairs in Orion?

[goober (Doug)]

Originally Posted by §AB

I can now magnify 714x with my scope so is there any really tight pairs in Orion?

Bound to be ... I tend to stay in the 1.5" to 10" range. I have "Double Stars for Small Telescopes" at home, and the list for Orion goes on for 3 or so pages. I'm sure there would be some online catalogues too.

Did you get your Radian?

[SkySearcher (Daniel)]

Hey Doug

Thanks for checking out ETA Orionis. The reason I asked was because it took my Dad 2 and half years to split that one with his 4" Unitrion refractor (many years ago). I'm not sure if it changes over time but it certainly was a challenge back then. My max mag at the moment is 200x at 100 times they both look elongated.

I split it and Alnitak on the weekend no probs but tried again last night and only managed to glimpse them as splits.

The Trapezium is a nice looking bunch and the lowest magnification I could see F at was 100x, just.

I won't bother with colour until I get some better eyepieces (hopefully for christmas)

[goober (Doug)]

Originally Posted by SkySearcher

Thanks for checking out ETA Orionis. The reason I asked was because it took my Dad 2 and half years to split that one with his 4" Unitrion refractor (many years ago). I'm not sure if it changes over time but it certainly was a challenge back then.

I was looking it up in Hartung afterwards. I think it said Eta Ori is opening up, but it was 2am and now I'm not sure what I was reading about!

[§AB]

Originally Posted by goober

Bound to be ... I tend to stay in the 1.5" to 10" range. I have "Double Stars for Small Telescopes" at home, and the list for Orion goes on for 3 or so pages. I'm sure there would be some online catalogues too.

Saw it in S&T, might have to look thru my issues.

Originally Posted by goober

Did you get your Radian?

nah, I have a 3.5mm Vixen LVW which will give 714x when barlowed. I'll have to try this on 47Tuc on a night of good seeing just out of curiosity!