switched to visual (Blue Mountains)

Midnight. Started some visual observing. Brought in cables.

Interested in tagging a few more coloured doubles from the RASC handbook. Discounted a bunch of objects for being too low. Selected 1 Peg.

12:05. In the Tele Vue refractor at 54 power, 1 Peg was obvious. Yellow and blue. In the Celestron SCT the primary was warmer. RASC describes this pair as orange and violet. It is an interesting blue colour, for sure. Webb says orange and blue. Maybe about 2 magnitudes different? Wow. SkyTools 3 Pro said 4! Well, in the Object Information box... While pointing in the chart, it is not as much: 4.1 vs 7.5. I spotted a faint star, at a right angle to A and B. Much fainter. Hey, hey, that faint star was C. All right. Saw it right away. Pretty, nice colours.

[ed: I was pleased to view these well as I had not noted the colours previously. Removed from my View Again.]

Slewed to NV Peg aka SAO 89737 or 2 Peg. A short hop. Sounded familiar...

Kiron popped in and had a look. A double? Yep. Albireo. Nope.

A little triangle. Warm yellow? Orange? Blue? Green? RASC said orange and blue. Noted the C star.

[ed: Two more I had not noted the colours of previously. Removed from my View Again.]

12:14. Chose V343. Slewed to HIP 114187 aka Σ2978 (Struve).

Rick asked if he could store his 'scope inside; he didn't want to load it back in his car. I offered the observatory floor. I held the doors as he brought in the fork.

The refractor seemed to be out of alignment with the SCT suddenly. Odd.

Looked blue and orange in the refractor. Faint. Tighter. Very pleasing, actually. In the SCT, immediately, it looked yellow and blue. This agrees with RASC.

[ed: Once again, I had not noted the colours previously. Removed from my View Again.]

Spotted a pair off to the side, to the north-west, a faint pair. PPM 88531. No colour.

Rick forgot his battery charger for his Canon. But my 40D batteries were different. In size and contact points. We chatted about software. Backyard for camera control although I'm still pretty new to that. I have a lot of seat time with EOS Utility. Gave a quick demo of SkyTools. Discussed TheSky, for use with the Paramount. He headed off to bed.

12:29. Thought I had the 55 in the C14 but in fact it was loaded with the 27.

Slewed to HR 8833 aka SAO 108463 or Σ2991. Low.

12:32. Nice. Orange and blue. The blue star was really faint. Very different brightnesses.

RASC says yellow and blue and tight. Tight? No. Easily separated. [ed: I had the T circled in my RASC 2015 Observer's Handbook...]

Noted a long string or arc of stars with brighter SAO 108471 off to the east.

I must not have gotten around to the Pegasus constellation...

Chose HD 224083 aka SAO 91574 or OΣ252. Up near Almach.

12:38. Two stars, very wide apart, similar intensities. In the TV101, blue and orange. In the C14, the primary changed colour! Sometimes white, sometimes yellow. The secondary looked orange. RASC says yellow and red. The pair formed a long, nearly straight line with TYC 02258-0759 1 and HD 224016, the latter of which was almost the same brightness as B.

[ed: Yet another pair not well documented by me. Removed from my View Again.]

Neat. I was very happy to be knocking off some stars from the RASC OH.

Oh, oh. Noted clouds. The sky was almost gone.

Aimed for ε (epsilon) Persei aka 45 or Σ471. Hmm. Low in the constellation. Low in the sky. Yellow, orange, and very tight. RASC says yellow and green and very tight. Ha. Haas says lemon and cobalt. B was really dim. To my 4 o'clock, or north. Saw some stars heading off to the south-east, in-line. ST3P said C was in-line with B but very faint, mag 13 or 14. And that should be doable in good conditions... Should be viewed when higher...

12:48. Considered new targets, like Mirfak. The upper part of Perseus. HIP 1488. No. Almach.

12:52. Orange and green. Fantastic colours. RASC says orange and blue.

Checked the unobserved entries and plotted them into a chart. ε Per was too low; 59 And looked like a good option.

12:54. Wide pair. Yellow and blue. RASC agreed. Haas says pearl and peach. Wow. aka Σ222. A faint star nearly in-line TYC 02830-0257 1.

Spotted an interesting group of stars to the north-west...

12:56. Viewed PPM 67034. The A and B stars have a separation almost the same as 59 And. The angle formed by PPM and 59 was about 30 degrees. Saw the C star to PPM. It was not at a 90° so somewhat evocative of a hockey stick.

Clouds almost completely covered the southern sky. A bit of the north was available.

Seemed to be a lot of glow in the north. Installed a fresh battery in the DSLR.

1:00. Took a quick 15-second shot with the wide angle. Nothing.

Started closing up.

1:06. Checked the time.

1:08. Headed to the house.

§

Now only 17 stars left to view (or view again) in the RASC Coloured Doubles list.