double star work (Blue Mountains)

When Jerry and David headed off to bed, I took control of the C14.

At 12:15 AM, I decided to revisit β (beta) Scorpii, aka Graffias, aka Acrab, in the northern pincer. My old notes hinted at that I observed on a couple of occasions but described different colours each time.

I was able to easily split this pretty double with the 27mm (at 145x). It was widely split with 18mm (at 217x). I thought the main star was white-blue whereas the companion was darker blue. These colours seem to match Haas's description. She says the main is a "brilliant white star beside a little globe of cobalt blue." Flowery.

The stars were shimmering, low to the horizon. They were only 10° up.

I took a reading with the Sky Quality Meter. I took a few readings. Got 19 and change.

At 12:35 I observed π (pi) Capricorni. Again, I had this double in my notes. But this time, my log entry said that I had not been able to split it. Even using the C14. OK. Let's try again...

Well, I could see two stars. But it was not easy! While a tight double, I found that the 18mm eyepiece helped to easily split the suns. The main star was pale yellow white; the companion was pale orange. Hartung said the companion was white and did not assign a colour to the main. I backed up: I could still split, for certain, with the 27mm. But it was not obvious at 71x with the Tele Vue Plössl 50mm.

Haas says the separation was 3.2" in 2002.

Hmmm. This might be a good one to measure!

This trip to the CAO, I had remembered to bring all the double star notes and materials. I thought, while I had the Sky & Telescope magazine with Teague's methods, I'd refer to my summary notes to see if they made sense. That's when I saw the reminder: Teague's "better" method is not suitable for tight doubles. Oh.

Well, I still needed to calibrate the central linear scale in the Celestron Micro Guide. I set up to perform some timings. First, I located a 5th magnitude star to the north, between 65° and 75° declination. I did a few runs aligning the linear scale to the west. That required some hot footing between the telescope and the Warm Room. Then I grabbed my palmtop to perform some timings. Just as Phil walked in. He asked what I was doing. I asked if he could help me. He graciously offered to operate TheSky6 turning off and on the tracking.

I captured the following drift times: 29.46, 30.00, 29.48, 29.51, and 29.53.

A big thanks to Phil for helping! He said he was off to bed...

I continued to read the notes and considered a wide double to measure... When I caught myself nap-jerking into the desk. OK. That's enough! The lack of sleep had finally caught up with me.

After I shut everything down and emerged from the GBO, I saw Ian was still out. I think I remember him saying that he was imaging a new target. Good luck and good night.

I trundled off to the library where I had set up my bed.