Observation Report 25.07.15

[Doc]

Saturday 25.07.15

Back Garden

Skywatcher Esprit 120ED Triplet

Televue Delos Eyepieces

22.00 - 01.00

 

The agenda for tonight was to compare and test the Baader Morpheus 12.5mm against the Televue Delos 12mm, the report is coming a long nicely and I will post that up when it is finished. The other reason I was itching to get out was to test my newly purchased set of Televue Delos eyepieces.

 

Started the night on the moon and even though it was low in the sky it looked wonderful, the 4.5mm Delos really picked up all the details across the surface, especially the area around Copernicus, which I took 20 minutes to sketch. The 4.5mm Delos gives me a magnification of x186 and a FOV of 0.38°, this really helped picking out the details.

 

Next was Saturn which again was low down but the view was very pleasant. Increased the magnification to x140 by inserting the 6mm Delos and the image scale was pretty impressive, could easily see markings on the surface and at least three very tiny moons but these were fading in and out with the seeing.

 

As the seeing was a little poor to begin with I decided to do some double star splitting so I headed for Hercules where I started with Alpha Her also known as Rasalgethi, the magnitudes are 3.2 and 5.4 and the separation of 4.6" was easily split using the 4.5 Delos. The stars are 500AU apart and has an orbital period of 3600 years. I would say they were Yellow and white in colour.

 

Next was Sarin or Delta Hercules this double consists of a 3.1 primary and a 8.2 secondary and is seperated by 8.9". A very easy split in most of the eyepieces but looked best in the 8mm Delos at x105. Apparently there are 5 stars in this system and it lies 75 light years away.

 

Next was Rho Hercules once again quite an easy split, the details are 4.6, 5.6 and a separation of 4.1". The Baader morpheus 12.5mm gave a very nice split but the best was the 6mm Delos. There is a another star in this system but it's mag 13.3 so I was unable to see this star.

 

My next one was Zeta Hercules, this is very hard and I would say impossible in my scope, the primary is 2.9 and the secondary 5.5 but the separation is only 0.7", I tried using my 3.5mm Delos at x240 but saw nothing couldn't even get an elongation.

 

My last one in Hercules was 95 Her at 5.0 and 5.1 and a separation of 6.3" this was pretty easy and appeared as yellow and white, what was difficult was finding it, I had to star hop to it.

 

Staying in Hercules I looked at M13 which was resolved into separate individual stars using the 4.5mm Delos at x186. I also looked at M92 but being smaller was harder to resolve but did manage a few of the outer stars.

 

Over to Lyra next and I started on the wonderful double double or Epsilon Lyra. The consists of two double star systems seperated by 208". The first double consists of 5.0, 6.1 and 2.6" separation and an orbit of 1165 years, the second consists of 5.2 , 5.5 and a separation of 2.3" and an orbit of 585 years. The Baader Morpheus 12.5mm only elongated the split but the 8mm down to 4.5mm split it pretty easily, the best view with the 4.5mm Delos. All components seemed white with no colour at all.

 

Next on the list was Beta Lyra components are 3.4 and 8.6, with a separation of 8.6". And then onto Zeta Lyra with a primary of 4.3 and a secondary of 5.9, this was very easy with a separation of 43.7".

 

Had a quick look at M57 which was fantastic, simply jumped out at me and looked brilliant in the 6mm Delos. It took a while to find my next target which was the globular cluster M56 a very faint object positioned close to the Cygnus border. This little globular didn't give up much and try as I might I only just managed a few stars within the globular.

 

Over to Cygnus next and my favourite Alberio or Beta Cygni. It's primary is a fantastic yellow star shining at mag 3.1, and it's companion a blue star shining at 5.1. The separation is easy at 34.3" but it looks spectacular and any eyepiece.

 

Delta Cygni is a little more difficult it's 2.9 and 6.3 with a separation of 2.5". I only managed to elongate this one using my 4.5mm Delos.

 

Omicron Cygni was pretty awesome in the 17.3mm Delos at mag x48.5. Consisting of three stars 4.0, 5.0, and 7.0 and separations off 107" and 338" it appeared as Yellow, Blue, and white.

 

Staying in Cygnus I went searching for 61 Cyg and this turned out to be easy in the 10mm Delos. The stars are 5.2 and 6.0 and are 30.3" apart, the colours appeared to be Yellow or maybe Orange.

 

While in Cygnus I had a peek at M29 and Ngc6910.

 

Next constellation was Cassiopeia and Gamma Cass, this turned out to be pretty hard it's primary is mag 2.5 and it's companion a dimmer mag 11 so at only 2.3" separation I found the companion was lost in it's parents glare, I tried all my eyepieces and maybe had an elongation using the 4.5mm Delos but unsure.

 

Eta Cas at 3.4 and 7.5 was easily split at 12.7" using the 6mm Delos the colours were yeloow and red and it's orbit is 480 years.

 

Iota Cas a triplet of mags 4.6, 6.9, and 8.0 was pretty hard with the separation of AB only 2.5" I could only manage an elongation but the AC separation of 7.3" was obtained using the 4.5mm Delos, all stars appeared white.

 

Staying in Cassiopeia I looked at M52 and maybe saw 30 stars in this field. Next was M103 and this open cluster had less stars about 15. The last one is Cassiopeia was Ngc7789 which was a fantastic cluster pretty dense and had lots of stars present.

 

Before the clouds rolled in I observed the following objects M3, M15, M27, and M71.

 

A great night with wonderful eyepieces.

 

 

 

Edited July 26, 2015 by Doc

[Tweedledee]

Superb and enjoyable report Mick.

 

You are just loving those new eps.

 

Did you notice any degradation in the views at 240x in the 3.5mm delos due to seeing?

[Doc]

I couldn't use the 3.5mm too much the seeing wasn't that great. The 4.5mm was pretty easy to use and gave some great views, the difference between the two is x56 mag.

 

The image scale of the 3.5mm on Saturn was very large and I wpuld imagine on those rare nights of good seeing the view would be fantastic.

[M.]

I'm glad you had a fairly good session

[BAZ]

Another comprehensive report there Mick and a nice read, the new eyepieces are looking good.

[Smithysteve]

An excellent report on a great nights viewing!

Nice one Mick!

I enjoyed following your tour of the sky.

The new Delos EPs must be delivering a great performance! Having the full range must be a joy!