doubles in 3½ (Toronto)

Lost my e-file! I was keeping some notes in the Stargazing Journal and some on the computer. I will have to go from memory, re. objects and targets. I don't think I'll be able to recall the weather details from the Oregon Scientific and CTC OneWorld portable weather stations...

The loss was due to, ultimately, forgetting to quit the Stellarium application. When I restarted the netbook the next morning, it was in a bad way. After a couple of attempts, I successfully logged into Windows. But then... BSOD! Windows shut down to prevent damage. And, poof, there went my Notepad file. Note to self: don't let Stellarium run overnight.

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Arrived home late, around 11:00 PM. Malcolm dropped me off. As I looked up at the night sky, from the street, it seemed incredibly dark, velvety black. Wow. Darker than a couple of nights ago, it seemed. Maybe, I thought, I could squeeze in some observing.

Grabbed the Questar, the netbook, Double Star Atlas, double stars for small telescopes, the Stargazing Journal, and headed to the picnic table out back. Opened the garage and fed out the extension cord. Put on my bug suit! Hot now.

Noticed that the Cherny's had all the back lights on, particularly the one up high, under the soffet, aimed toward my yard. Damn it. I'm not gonna take it anymore! I phoned the house, at 11:15, and tersely asked Milo to shut them off. Amazingly, he complied.

11:30 PM. 48% humidity, 20.4°C. Did a rough polar alignment. Took in Saturn again. I was surprised to not find a bright moon... Were the conditions worse?! Went up to 160x and still could not see other moons. Checked Stellarium. Oops. That's not Titan, one ring-width to the east; that's Rhea. Ah. No wonder it was dimmer. Tethys was a half ring-width to the west but I could not confirm it visually.

That said, I could see ring shadow on the planet surface and bands of clouds.

Chased some double stars...

Looked at β (beta) Leonis aka Denebola. I don't remember my impressions. I don't remember what I logged in Notepad... Gone. I only recall confusion, not being sure how to interpret Haas's notes, and having the field of view numbers handy...

Starhopped from Alkaid to nearby κ (kappa) and ι (iota). Interesting at low power in the Questar seeing both of these pairs at the same time. It was some time later that I discovered that these stars were in Boötes and not Ursa Major. And later still that I learned that I had already visited these! That was a little discouraging. So much so I didn't note colours, brightnesses, etc.

Very tired. Was it 2-ish when I wrapped?!

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Here's a good example of where I should have sketched what I was seeing...

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Elastic band around the tube worked well, preventing the dew shield from slipping down.

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Second note to self: don't use Notepad for logging!