by Richard Ozer
I got to Del Valle at about 5:30 just in time to discover that my secondary needed serious collimation and that I'd have to fix it in the dark. The force was with me however; I closed my eyes, picked a set screw, gave it a quarter turn with the allen wrench and voilla.... everything was centered in the crosshairs... Dave Bush was also there with his Meade SCT and John was there as well (I don't recall his last name).
It had been a while since I last went observing so I decided to keep things simple. Since it was a first quarter moon, I wasn't after any objects requiring either dark adaptation or vivid imagination. In that spirit, I began the evening by blinding myself with the moon. My main targets were part of a small fall sky binary star list that I've put together for a (very) brief talk I'm giving later this month. I like starting with Alberio because Cygnus always helps me get me oriented to the fall sky. I'm happy to report it was still there!
While in the general region, I took a peek at M27 (the Dumbell) in Vulpecula, always an eerie sight. It seemed quite bright last night even after my brief encounter with the moon.
Also in Vulpecula is NGC 6882 and 6885. These two open clusters are right on top of one another; the first being mag. 6 and the other being mag. 8. These are nice to look at because of the incredibly rich field of stars that form their backdrop. Also, not far from M27 is M71, a medium-bright compact globular. I was able to resolve some of it's stars along the edges; but didn't spend much time playing with magnification to see if I could resolve more.
Continuing with binaries, I moved to Casseopeia where I took a peek at Eta Cass and Iota Cass; both easily resolved (Eta more than Iota). Eta Cass has approx. 13 arc-seconds separation and Iota is at approx. 2.6 arc-seconds.
Next came Gamma Andromedae. Gamma is particularly interesting. The pair is quite bright and "Alberio-like." The orange star is visually separated from the dimmer blue star by about 10 arc-seconds. The blue star is also a binary, separated at .5 arc-seconds (I've not yet been able to resolve this). The companion to the blue star is also a spectroscopic binary with a period of 2.7 days. So you're really looking at four stars. That's gotta be one h--- of a sunset.
From a recent list that someone on TAC posted, I also took a peek at Gamma Delphinus; another "Alberio-like" double. Being so close to Pegasus, I decided to have a quick peek at M15; by far a favorite object.
Back to Casseopeia, I had a look at NGC 7790. This is a very interesting open cluster; at least to my eye. It has a very distinct "arc" shape. I've also seen it described as a "boomerang-shaped nebulous knot". Also nearby to 7790 was M52 and NGC 7789, a very large open cluster.
The dew at this point (it was only 8:45) was getting everything soggy. I had to take a look at Jupiter, which looked like it was at the bottom of a swimming pool. High clouds were rolling in and it was time to go...