Addicted & Seeing Double!!!

9/3/99

Even though I'm going to spend 11 -12 hours at Lick observing tomorrow night, I got "Gus" out for a session tonight. Unfortunately, the skies for DSO's were terrible here at Tonopah with a sky dome glow of up to 55 degrees caused by smoke, haze and smog. So I planned my evening accordingly. Looked at not to closely spaced double stars. Didn't try the faint DSO's.

Observing, Tonopah. Conditions Very Poor, Moon Last Quarter, sky glow 55 degree dome to the west, about the same to the north, east, and south. Moisture content high, temperature 65 degrees F. Smoke, haze and smog.

10" DOB.

Began about 2055 hours 9/3/99.

Primary Target area Scorpius, Hercules, Cygnus, Aquila, Delphinus.

Finished around 2205 hours 9/3/99.

New objects

Beta Scorpii (Graffias)....Split nicely into yellow and blue pair. Easy.
Alpha Hercules (Ras Algethi)...Also split nicely- 4.6" so used 104X.
61 Cygni - This is interesting double is 27" apart and one is also a variable star (V1803). Apparently the pair is only 11 light years away and is a good target for measuring heliocentric parallax. There is some speculation about a planet 10 times the size of Jupiter orbiting one of the components. Unfortunately, the Vulcan Camera Project is not looking at this star at the current time.
Gamma Delphini - Easy double 10" apart.

Old Stuff

Tried for M17, Swan Nebula, even though I've already seen it several times, but the sky was SOOO poor I couldn't see it!

CAN'T FIND

NGC 6826, blinking planetary (maybe it blinked off again!). Someday?