Last night at our local astronomy clubs viewing night I had a chance to observe a few of the May challenge objects with a couple of other IceInSpace members, Kevin and Nautilus. Using a 12" dob on X Velorum HR 4180? The blue and yellow didn't seam as intense as Albireo but I was impressed with the colours never the less. Maybe the extra light using the 12"dob washed out the colour? The Southern Pleiades was a splendid site in the 12" but was better viewed with binoculars to incorporate surrounding stars and the entire member stars. It was a cool and dew wet night, we did get to see a lot more objects but not from our challenge list. Kevin had his TV and Video cam in operation as well, it was amazing to view Omega Cent, Cent A, Eta Carinae Neb and Jupiter on screen with 20 other people at the same time. The Moon was stunning on the screen as well, were able view the dark portion of the moon using the earth glow. One last star we had a good look at was DY Crucis ESB 365 it's a blood red carbon star close to Mimosa. We found the best view was using 100x it was very easy to over look with the glare of Mimous but once we found it, it just grabs your attention like a red traffic light. We had over 25 people attend and 7 telescopes one of those wonderful nights with friends.
EB365 is one of my favourite targets. I actually comtemplated suggesting it to Mike and Andrew as next months multiple with Mimosa, although they are an unrelated pairing. Unfortunately under less than favourable conditions it can be a tough target in a small scope, additionally the blood red colouring is not so apparent in a small scope so I didn't bother to suggest it.
Well done Mick! A favourite of mine and you have captured it well. Might have to have a stab at grabbing a pic or two myself of some of my favourite doubles / pairings.
