9th Jan 2013. 145 CMa & Mintaka

[Guest Ely Ellis]

After a very poor start to the evening, I just couldn't get the mount aligned. Was going to pack everything away but it turned 20:00 and time for Stargazing Live, so I left the kit out.

 

At 21:30, back out to find clear skies, so I had another fiddle with the alignment and managed to get it sorted. It may have been the declination angle that was out.

 

Anyway, cloud now coming in from the North, so thought I would look for some doubles.

 

Started with 145 CMa in Canis Major, it was very low on the Southern horizon, and I did not expect to see anything, however, a look though the eyepiece showed a very nice double, with excellent colour contrast and good separation. A quick nip inside for the camera and I took a few shots at varying exposures. Unfortunatly, without having remote shutter control, I did get a slight wobble on the images.

Even so, the images came out quite good and kept good colour.

 

 

By this time the cloud was almost total, but I could see parts of Orion shining through. I quickly picked a double in Orion, Mintaka and slewed the scope over. This double has a bit more separation, but the cloud cover was almost total by now. I fitted the camera to see what I could get, and even through the cloud I managed to take a few.

 

The colour not as striking as 145 CMa, but the difference in magnitued made up for it even though this made it difficult to get good exposure. Too short and you only get one star, too long and over expose!

 

 

With 100% cloud cover, I called it a night. The scope and mount were covered in an inch of ice, but luckily my super fantastic homemade dew heater kept my optics crisp and clear.

Now then, a dew heater for my glasses????

 

 

So, anyone else fancy capturing some doubles ?

 

 

Martin

Edited January 10, 2013 by Ely Ellis

[philjay]

Nice one Martin, youve beaten me to it a bit, Im setting up for imaging doubles with my 5" F7.5 refractor but mount issues have slowed me a bit.

 

The colours youve captured are very good 145 Cma is a nice colour contrast pair. Bootes is starting to rise later on and this is full of colourful doubles, you will have a field day with that constellation Im sure

[Craig]

Very nice indeed!

[+RonC]

Worth the agro!  Good colours  

[BAZ]

Great job Martin, both the images and the home brew dew strap.

[Guest Ely Ellis]

Thanks all for the comments. Much appreciated.

 

Phil, thanks for the heads-up re. Bootes.

 

Martin

[Guest Mr T]

Nice colour contrasts. Doubles seemed to get overlooked by imagers, I think I took some during the summer - I'll have a look.

 

Mark

[Guest Ely Ellis]

Mark,

 

Don't look for them... take some more

[Guest Mr T]

Good point. I did find them, though I didn't name the images so I haven't the foggiest what they are, although I could probably guess from the date and time info.

[Guest Ely Ellis]

Mark,

 

Just take some more, get them posted.

Afterall, Craig put this section up for us double takers!

 

Hope to see some from you after the next clear night..... so, in about 6 month then.. haha

 

Martin