by Bob Jardine
It was Saturday, just after new moon. The weather was highly variable. The CSCs predicted a few hours of “blue” prior to a long stretch of clouds, but they don’t update frequently enough for such highly variable weather. I waited and waited, watched the satellite images, watched others stand down, watched the clouds move in. Finally I stood down too. Boy was I p*-ed off.
There was going to be a nice occultation of 88 Psc by La Luna. Grazing in Monterey, Pinnacles, and on to Fresno. I had hoped to go to Coyote, to at least be closer to the graze line. But I stayed home.
Surprisingly, at 7:00, about 30 minutes before the occultation, I could see the moon. So I set up my TV NP101 on the back deck. Sure enough, I could see the star, quite obviously in the moon’s path. If you haven’t watched one of these -- do it. You can really get the impression of a really huge object very slowly, but inexorably, moving in to crush a little tiny object. You almost feel sorry for the star!
But clouds were moving. By 7:15, although I could still see the moon, I couldn’t see the star. Missed the occultation. But there were still pretty large patches of sky open, and the clouds were moving so fast, I decided to leave the scope set up. I went inside for dinner. Came back out at 8:00. The sky was completely clear! I’m not kidding -- not a cloud in the sky.
First, I kicked myself for not going to MB anyway. It is only a few miles due West of me (as the crow flies), so I knew it must be clear there. Oh well, split milk. So I stopped kicking and started splitting -- double stars, that is. I took most of this list from Dickinson’s Mag 6 Star Atlas -- in addition to a good beginner atlas, it has a fine list of objects.
It turned out to be a fine night on the back porch. A little dew, but not bad. Clear skies (mostly) for almost 3 hours!
(Warning: I split doubles for fun, not science; there are PA estimates below, and occasionally separation estimates; I do these for practice, and compare them against the published values, but I just use the drift method for PA and "eyeball it"; and I’m very happy if I get within 20 degrees. So there.)
| 23 Orionis | Very wide. splits even in my “finder” (35mm Panoptic). Viewed at 60x and 108x. PA estimated 10 to 20 degrees. Primary is white; secondary is off-white. |
|---|---|
| 33 Orionis | By contrast, very close. splits (barely) at 108x. clean at 193x. PA est 10 to 15 degrees. Est sep about 2 arcsec or so. No color seen. |
| 52 Orionis | Suspected only. very, very close (suspected at 270x). PA about 20 to 30 deg (or 200 to 210 -- I can’t tell which is the primary). I’ll need to try this one again with more aperture. Normally, I could go to higher power with this scope, but the wooden deck has some bounce, and the image wiggles too much, even at 270x. |
| 59 Orionis | very obvious wide companion at PA about 300. However, with more power (visualize the tool man: “MORE POWER!”), there is a closer, much dimmer, companion at PA about 200 to 215. Barely visible -- on the edge of my visibility limit tonight. Not super close, however. |
| Struve 750 | dbl in Orion -- this one is interesting, as it is in the OC 1981 (top of the sword). PA about 45 degrees, secondary about 2 mags dimmer, quite close -- splits cleanly at 108x, but only barely. A nice clean split at 270x. |
| 14 Aurigae | nice; pretty wide at 77x. PA est 250. secondary is at least 2 mags dimmer and less white. |
| 26 Aurigae | pretty close at 77x. PA est 270 to 280. At least two mags dimmer and less white. Similar to 14, but a little closer. |
| 88 Leonis | close and very dim at 108x. at 193x, pretty close and very dim companion -- can see it direct, but barely; need to use AV to get PA (est. 300 to 320). Must be at least 3 mags dimmer. |
| 90 Leonis | is this a triple? quite dim and wide companion at 77x. PA maybe 250. But at 108x, the primary splits, but is very close. At 193x, it is a close dbl with about 1 mag difference; PA about 210 to 230. Both white. |
Posted on sf-bay-tac Feb 14, 2005 20:26:08 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.2 Feb 15, 2005 18:46:22 PT