Observations at Kelling with 4" F15 Refractor

[philjay]

Finally sorted my log out and updated my catalogues for all the old and new things I saw over the week, heres a copy

 

Visual

Vintage 1979 4" F15 Broadhurst Clarkson and Fuller Refractor on Antique T Cooke Mount c1870,

Cambridge Double Star Atlas

Celestron Plossly 40mm (38x)

Sirius Plossl 25mm (61x)

TMB Plan 9mm (170x)

TMB Plan 6mm (255x)

Meade 5000 Plossl 5.5mm (278x)

Vixen LVW 22mm (69x)

Vixen LVW 13mm (117x)

 

Tuesday 01/10/13

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Clear with good seeing from twilight to approx 23:00, deteriorating with high thin cloud/mist as the night progressed

 

 

 

23 Ursa Major (ST1351) bags of separation at 61x on this at around 20 something"separation. Yellow white primary +3.65 mag with a fainter companion at around 9th mag showing a very faint bluish colour.  

 

 

Beta Lyra (Sheliac) ST39. This is a nice multiple. 61x shows a small triangle of 4 stars in an arrow shape.  Catalogue states 12.9 day binary set within a starry triangle. More mag shows primary and secondary are indeed binaries as well. No colour to speak of evident.

 

Gamma Delphinus ST2727 - The nose of the dolphin. Lovely colourful double, termed the Ghost Double in the catalogue. Yellow and Green components. 61x shows them up nicely at 4.5 and 5.5 mag with 9" separation. Two little eyes staring back at you from space :-)

 

Gamma Andromeae (Almaak) Main components easy split 61x, lovely colour Orange and green. Upped the mag to try and split the primary which has a companion at 0.4". I took it high 255x and there was a definite elongation but conditions were not great at this time.

 

Did some DSOs, the usual suspects M31/32/110, 57, 37, 13, Bronchi, M103. Tried for Neptune but no luck

 

Eta Persei ST307  - Orange with Blue green companion, min Albireo. Nice split with 61x at 28" sep and 3.8 and 8.5. Highly recommended this one.

 

Sunday 06/10/13

Conditions, good seeing, dry compared to saturday, the odd bit of mist appearing around 22:00 but clearing to give top notch legendary Kelling skies for the early hours of Monday.

 

 Eta Draconis - 2.73 and 8.8 mag with 5.1" separation. A nice system this one easily split with moderate magnification

 

Rho Hercules another nice pair of eyes in space. 5.4 and 4 mag with 4" separation Green/white and blue / white components, lovely sight and easy to find.

 

Delta Hercules (ST3127) Oh this is nice. 3.1 qand 8.3 mags at 11" separation, framed in a lovely fov with white and violet components, nice.

 

I lost my pen at this point so this is from memory

 

M57, M31/32/33. Epsilon Lyra, M13, Albireo

 

Andy (Tuckstar) and I had a bash at Neptune,we thought we had it and were waxing lyrical over the views, then Baz said we were way off   so its official we had discovered a new planet  

 

Uranus, thanks to Baz for letting me get the FOV through his finder I found this planet easily. It actually took some maginifcation well at  177x, showing a blue disc with no markings. This is a first in this scope for me so I was well pleased.

 

Had a few wanders around showing various folks their favouirites in the scope then M42 took centre stage.

 

M42, in 40mm at 38x the trapezium and fishes mouth were striking, with plenty of detail showing in the nebulosity, a really good view for a 4" scope. So we upped the mag to increase the contrast and the trapezium showed nicely, conditions didnt allow E&F stars as M42 was still low but the views were excellent nonetheless.

 

By 0230 Jupiter had eventually cleared the trees enough to give the scope a chance of a decent view. 1st views were disappointing but as the planet rose higher the views improved to very good.

 

 Initial observations showed no moons until a small white dot appeared set against the planets limb darkening near the NEB as the time wore on. Looking at Skymap Pro11 this was IO emerging from in front of the planet. A little later 2 more dots appeared at the opposite limb, these were  Europa and Ganemede. As the planet rose views of the belts improved but I didnt push the mag further than 117x with the Vixen 13mm.

 

By this time it was 03:00 and with the prospect of striking camp and driving home later that day I reluctantly left the skies to get some sleep with the views of Jupiter and M42 still going through my head, what a finale to the star party!  

[Doc]

Detailed report as always Phil.

 

A lot of nice objects with some often overlooked ones as well.

[tuckstar]

Now, what shall we name our planet Phil ;-) great report glad to have shared some of those views, and thanks to baz for putting us right :-)