did a bit more before the clouds (Blue Mountains)

A few more doubles...

Instruments: GSO 16-inch RC, Tele Vue 101 refractor
Mount: Paramount ME
Method: Go To

1:19 AM. Viewed HD 132357. aka STF 1895. Never viewed before. Dim stars in the Tele Vue 101 but nicely separated. In a big check-mark shape. Cool.

Rhonda appeared. Hello! I had thought she had turned in. "Welcome." We did a little star party!

2:47 AM. Revisited τ (tau) Cygni, once again, a suggestion from Andy. aka AGC 13. With the 10mm in the GSO 16. 'Scope pointing straight up. Pretty well the best time to look at it. I was near the diffraction limit. Saw something at the 10 or 11 o'clock position.

The SkyTools 3 Pro software, in the chart, said the stars were the same brightness. No. That's not what I was seeing. The Object Information said they were 3 magnitudes different. That's more like it. At 0.99 arc-seconds.

There were Q, C, P stars. And then the D well away.

Got all the stars!

Q, C, and P were dim. Similar. Whitish primary. Cool white. D was grey.

I also saw the faint double above and right (west). About the 1 or 2 o'clock position. SEI 1461.

All right.

2:50. Steve returned. I sent the OTA to the Iris Nebula (NGC 7023), the same object he was imaging. Dropped the power. We could see the nebulosity. It seemed to be extended more to the bottom-right.

I felt tired. Steve needed one more 10 minute frame.

I got confused by a searching and slewing issue. It was partly due to font colours with the red film.

Steve suggested slewing by the position. I didn't know who to do that. He spotted it... Telescope tab, Slew to Coordinates.

Headed, at last, to HR 8348, a triple. In Pegasus, also known as HJ 947. With the new 35mm Tele Vue.

3:06. Confirmed I was on the correct target. Put the 10mm in. Yellow, blue, grey. All fairly wide. Terrible seeing. Nothing was visible in the small refractor. C, above (north-west) was very faint in the big 'scope!

One more thing!

I figured out something. When in the Telescope tab and you search for something and it finds it, it immediately lists it. But if the item is not found, the previously used item remains. There's no tone (that I could hear).

Neptune!

3:14. I thought I was seeing two moons but it was a star with Triton. It was south-west. There was a isosceles triangle below (west).

Steve said the seeing was "super brutal."

Both Steve and I were happy with the pointing. Pretty well everything was dead on.

We parked our 'scopes. Started the dehumidifying. Oregon: 77%, 13.8°. I put all the oculars and accessories away while Steve ran the roof motor. I de-powered the main rig.

3:30. We closed the observatory. Headed to the house as astronomical twilight started... Clouds everywhere.