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ving
28-10-2005, 03:08 PM
seeing double, an observation report by Mr. Ving Ster

date: 27.10.05
seeing: 4/10
transparency: 7/10
scope: 8" reflector

A night of clear skies for once and i was going to capitalise on it!!!

A few days ago i was playing with my palm asto software and noticed that it showed about 50 doubles too... i just didnt have them ticked so they'd show. i did so and now it shows some real beauties! :D so i spent the night chasing some of these doubles....

in hydrus I spotted Pi Hydrus and Eta Hydrus. both of these are splitable in binoculars (or in my case the finder) and showed up as whites in my 15mm eyepiece. I quickly moved from these to something more interesting.
Zeta Pheonix is quite pretty tho. A is white and mag 4 while B is blue and mag 6.9. they could be split in my 15mm and the colours showed best there but they split easier in my 7.5mm EP. the seperation is 6.6".
quite close by is Beta Tuc. A and B were split easy in the 15mm EP (@27" seperation). both stars are white and almost he same magnitude.
accross to Upsilon Eridanus. a seperation of 8.3" made it quite pretty in the 15mm EP. both stars are white and are 1 mag difference in brightness.
Alpha Pisces is another double at about mag 4. A is mag 4.2 and B is mag 5.2. I couldnt seperate these two in mt 15mm at all and had to up the magnification with my 10.5mm. both stars showed as a brilliant white and really close together at 1.8" seperation.
86 Pisces is a wide double at 22.8" and pretty with its whita A star and yellow B star. it was just a step to the left of Alpha Pic. I used the 15mm in this one.:)

I saw a few others but these are the only ones I took notes for. :)
hope this inspires some newbies to chase doubles :D
the palm software i use is called Planetarium v 2.3.1 and should be avaliable on www.aho.ch/pilotplanets should anyone want to have a looksee :)

PS, this was also the first test for my seat. it worked great and was realy easy to adjust and confuy with its cow print cover :D

h0ughy
28-10-2005, 03:20 PM
Nice going there VIng! In newcastle last night Venus and mars were "twinkling" and there was a lot of haze around and the light pollution was terrible. but the sky looked ok

ving
28-10-2005, 03:24 PM
yeah i had similar conditions. i could see heaps but the actual seeing was pretty bad. most of the bright stars (mag 4 and brighter) were boiling messes at 150x or higher. mars was ok at 100x just.

asimov
28-10-2005, 03:30 PM
Nice report Mr. Ster!

atalas
28-10-2005, 04:52 PM
Thanks for the report David ,very nice mate .

ving
28-10-2005, 04:56 PM
no prob guys. I like giving yas some reading material on an otherwise quite day :)

is it just me or is it quieter without mike here?

[1ponders]
28-10-2005, 05:12 PM
Boy I'm glad someone is getting out and about doing some viewing. Seeing mustn't have been too bad for you. 1.8" seperation, good show.

acropolite
28-10-2005, 06:16 PM
Nice report Vingster, almost felt like I was there...:D

ving
28-10-2005, 06:45 PM
that was a typo. i used the 7.5 not 10.5, and even then it was hard.

Rodstar
04-11-2005, 10:09 PM
Thanks for the report Ving! You've set the standard for me to follow.

beren
05-11-2005, 01:54 AM
:) Top report Ving , next purchase a reticle eyepiece to give seperations and position angles methinks :thumbsup: