Post by kimg on Nov 18, 2017 13:27:53 GMT
Yesterday afternoon the sky was looking very cloudy, but with a few thin lines of clear to the north, I suspected the possibility of an early evening clear up, a bit of a suckers gap as the weather geared up for front to arrive in the early hours, so I set up. Remarkably, my suspicions were confirmed and I had about an hour and a half of near perfect sky, also the evening previous I also managed to do a little and so in all succeeded in nailing several targets that had been on the list for a few weeks. A day or so back, APOD had Caroline's rose cluster in Cassiopeia as it's item, this is also very close to rho Cas, a Hypergiant star visible to the naked eye. I often use Deneb as an example of a super bright huge star, but it comes nowhere near rho Cas for brightness, Deneb is about 2500 lyr distant, rho cas is 11000 lyr, for a star to be naked eye visible at such a distance is extraordinary and an excellent example of the type. Of course in the eyepiece it is just another star, it is the knowledge of what you are seeing that makes it interesting. Caroline's Rose cluster is a very large cluster of stars, the brightest of which are about mag 10 or 11 many more at 12 and the general are of misty light coming from hundreds of fainter still stars, it is quite a spectacle.
Variables I have been meaning to revisit for some time were also observed, T Uma, S Uma and RY Uma were all recorded, of course, it would be nice if we had a few more clear nights in a year, then we could possibly even track the progress of the variables, but even as it is, by making the observations when possible we can still observe the differences over time.
M71 in Sagitta was a fine GC with quie a few stars resolved. The Semi Regukar variable X Sge (Sagitta) was possibly one of the reddest stars I have seen, strikingly red in the eyepiece, nearby double star STF2361 with stars of magnitude 8.4 and 9.8 (or 8.1 and 9.1 depending on the resource used) and separated by just 4 arc seconds made a nice end to the session as the inevitable clouds rolled in across the sky from the northwest.
Variables I have been meaning to revisit for some time were also observed, T Uma, S Uma and RY Uma were all recorded, of course, it would be nice if we had a few more clear nights in a year, then we could possibly even track the progress of the variables, but even as it is, by making the observations when possible we can still observe the differences over time.
M71 in Sagitta was a fine GC with quie a few stars resolved. The Semi Regukar variable X Sge (Sagitta) was possibly one of the reddest stars I have seen, strikingly red in the eyepiece, nearby double star STF2361 with stars of magnitude 8.4 and 9.8 (or 8.1 and 9.1 depending on the resource used) and separated by just 4 arc seconds made a nice end to the session as the inevitable clouds rolled in across the sky from the northwest.