[N1 (Mirko)]

Last night 9 June the seeing around here turned out to be pretty good, maybe a 7 out of 10. Was going to observe some galaxies with the dob but abandoned that and got out the 102 f/11 ED instead. What followed was new territory to me. I'm not exactly a seasoned double star observer and thought, until yesterday, that there was little use other than novelty in extreme overmagnification. So I started out with the 5mm XO on my favourite star, Alpha Sco. The power was 215x, about the upper limit for a decent 4" for general observing. I immediately saw Antares B, a pale turquoise dot ahead of A in the direction of drift. That in itself was surprising. The view showed A's airy disk and diffraction rings, all pretty small and sharp. As in, this could handle more power. Next, the 2.5mm XO, at 435x magnification, from 102mm of aperture. This was now an easy split, and allowed me to see that B was between the first and second diffraction rings, closer to the second than the first. So a fair distance away. I was stunned. I finally settled on the 3.4mm Vixen HR, which at 330x gave the most aesthetic view. Spent about an hour on this object in total, 21:30 to 22:30. Always nice when it cooperates. The telescope appears to be working as intended also. The smallest yet that's allowed me such a straight-forward split.