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9:08 PM, 17.1°C, 77% RH. I star-hopped to 61 Cygnus as recommended by the Turn Left At Orion book. Initially, I tried to bull's eye it directly, using relative positioning, but the finder scope was not showing anything recognisable. I backtracked to Deneb and then headed to ν (nu) and ξ (xi) Cygnus. It was an easy jump to 61.
I first viewed it at low power (56x). It was a satisfying separation in the wide field. They are almost identical colour, gold (not orange like TLAO suggests). The fainter star is perhaps slightly more orange or red. Just a hint. When I jumped to high power (110x), now I felt the colours were the same.
I could see a dozen faint blue/white stars in the field.
Mirror-reversed view.
The separation, in this 22' field, appeared to be about 1/30th of the total diameter. By my calculations, I estimate the stars are 43 arc-seconds apart. double stars by Sissy Haas says, in 2004, they are 31 arc-seconds apart.
I was intrigued to learn that this binary is very close to us. 61 Cygni is within 12 light-years. And it's proper motion is very high. But the orbital motion is slow (approx. 650 years).
9:36 PM, 16.9°, 81%. I noticed that τ (tau) Cygnus was a double star (according to the Pocket Sky Atlas). So I jumped to the bright beige star, not far from 61. But I did not see a companion. I tried 56x, 77x, 110x, 144x, and 220x. Nothing. At 220, the star was bouncing around and the airy disk was swelling and shifting.
Maybe this isn't such a good night after all.
9:54 PM, 16.7°, 81%. I had a similar experience with υ (upsilon) Cygnus. I could not split the single white point at 56x or 110x. That said, there's a nearby star, fairly bright. It's about 1/4 of the field away (in the Meade 18mm).
9:58 PM. I spotted Jupiter over my shoulder! Very interesting. There are 2 bright stars nearby. That would mess people up. Looks like the moons have been scattered and fractured!
Arrow indicates drift, i.e. west. North is down.
Hey... I think I see the GRS (despite the bad seeing)! Could it be? I headed inside for a break, and checked the Jovian system. Yep. There are the 2 bright field stars. And there's the GRS. The position of the spot in Stellarium is a little different that my take of the live view. To me, it looks like it is 2/3rds of the way from the west.
Stellarium said Jupiter was about 16° in elevation. I recalled reading early in the year that it would not get very high in 2008. When I looked again, the orb was getting colourful, with chromatic distortion.
I was getting distracted by the upstairs bedroom ceiling lights reflecting off the white sides of the garage...
11:18 PM, 15.2°, 92%. I was waiting for the house mates on the top floor to turn off their bedroom lights. One of them did. As returned from the long break, I was surprised by the brightness of the sky. The Moon was due to rise after midnight. That was a ways away. Still, I was having a hard time spotting constellations. I could not find Delphinus, for example. Suddenly, I threw in the towel.
As I wrote my closing notes in my notebook, I switched to my Space Pen. A dozen words in, the ink ran out!
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Used the picnic table to set up boxes, my books, etc. Opened the sun umbrella. It worked! Everything near the centre of the umbrella was kept dry.
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I noticed the back light of the Oregon Scientific weather station remarkably dim. Impossible to read. Later, outside, I noticed that the low-battery indicator is on. I'll need to swap the batteries soon. And, again. I must update the battery log with this information. It seems short... Whereas the OneWorld is still going strong in "continuous display" mode.
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Speaking of low batteries, the red LED pen is looking a little dim.
And I forgot to replace the AA batteries in the Astronomy Case Alpha...
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Forgot to clean the eyepieces again!
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You know. The output from the re-purposed desk lamp is still not bright enough.
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