took advantage (Blue Mountains)

Found a beer in the house! Yes!

12:10 AM. Returned to the GBO. I did not have an observing plan ready so I started to work on that.

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

Checked the weather station: 98%, 20.1°.

The 'scope was pointed nearly straight up so I put it horizontal to keep the dew out.

Looked for the other mouse pad. I suspected it was in the house, in the basement, in the locked closet, in the locked security cabinet, in the laptop bag, for a computer we didn't use much anymore.

Switched from the new Evernote interface. It's still sucks.

I configured the Chrome browser on the new GBO computer to use the High Contrast theme. Took me a little while to find it.

Reviewed my double star project candidate list (online) and my SkyTools lists. I sought out targets to view again. Ended up with a list with over 25 objects.

12:30. Checked the Warm Room conditions. Bionaire: 68%, 25°. Humidity climbing, temp about the same. Still warmer than outside.

Did a bit of homework...

12:36. Lightning flashes were more noticeable now. Filling more of the sky. More obvious from the Warm Room. Closer now, perhaps?

Checked the CAO weather page. First time in a long time. It was updated at 12:30. 10 minute average wind speed was 1.6 km/h, direction west, current wind speed 3.2 km/h, high 6.4, humidity 98%, barometer 1012.8 mbar, outside temp 22.4°C, heat index 23.8°, dew temperature 22.1 (but 0.3 degrees away), inside temperature 26.7°. Wow. Checked the trend graphs: 100%  humidity Tue through Wed, dropped to 30%, has been climbing steadily, air pressure was lowest Tue night at 1008, then went high on Sat morning 1018.0, outside temp climbing through the week over 26 on Tue then over 28 on Thu, inside temp hovered at 24, dipped to 20, then climbed through the week to over 28 on Wed evening, the reception bar was rock steady at 100%, made sense closer on house, on the roof overhead, a new battery, new solar cell.

Continued working on ST3P list. Finally accessed my project list on the cloud (read only).

Headed outside for a bit.

The Moon was finally gone.

1:01. More list building.

Heard a strange bird call... Weird.

1:19. Skies looked bad again.

Added pre-notes.

Departed.

1:33. Skies looked pretty clear!

I hadn't really thought about it per se. Lately I have used my netbook with SkyTools talking to TheSky to drive the Paramount. I hadn't done any of the steps for that but it was not really a bad thing. This would give me a chance to get more familiar with TheSkyX. That'd be good.

Considered viewing HD 186224 aka Σ2563. Didn't seem very exciting.

Settled on 3 Pegasi.

Grabbed the 10mm for the Tele Vue 101 refractor. 54x.

1:43. A nice pair! Good at low power. North was down. White and orange, a little hard to tell. Very nice. Equal.

Missed a second monitor with the small computer. Wondered about getting an extra screen...

Went back out to look in the big gun.

Ho ho. Fantastic! Near to 3 Peg was SAO 126937 aka STT 443. Super tight pair. In-line, all the same angles. Same magnitudes. Faint in the TV101. Two in the view.

3 Peg in the big 'scope looked different: yellow and white or yellow and blue. Absolutely stunning.

[ed: Haas describe as yellow-white and ash white. She quotes Smyth: white and pale blue. And she refers to nearby OΣ443.]

Wondered about targets in Equuleus. I didn't have any...

Warm in the Warm Room. Turned the fan off.

Viewed γ (gamma) Equ. Did not dive deep. Super wide stars. Needs to be revisited...

1:59. Short slew.

Headed to the house. Needed a sweater!

The green LED on the new UPS was bright.

Added τ (tau) Cygni from Andy.

Hazy views in the 16-inch.

Tried δ (delta) Equ. Very unequal pair, tight-tight, AB, I did not see that. [ed: ST3P reports the separation is 0.25" as of May 2019, a binary system with a 5.7 year period! Wow! Very fast! aka STT 535.] AC [ed. aka STF 2777.] was visible but very unequal again. I didn't think it a good candidate.

Too hot. Turned the fan back on.

Zoomed into the chart.

2:14. Considered HD 202276 from ST3. Also known as Burnham 682. Entered the coords into TSX. Enter key didn't work; clicked Find.

Not an obvious pair. The software showed a very wide pair and a super-tight pair. Put it to view again.

[ed: ST4V has the following data...

AB: 7.47+12.0 mag, PA 102° Sep 5.50" (1943)
AC: 7.47+10.1 mag, PA 181° Sep 92.80" (2002)

From the WDS, the most recent record entry...

21145+0441
BU  682AB, 2015, 102, 5.7, 7.69 and 12.2
BU  682AC, 2015, 179, 93.0, 7.69 and 10.37

Should have been able to get B...]

[ed, again: Successfully imaged on 11 Jul 2019.]

Tried τ Cyg. Not a good view. Would need to try again later.

Clouded out... Counters dripping. Checked the Oregon: 98%, 19.8, pressure climbing, rain.

Decided to close up shop. Parked, closed the roof, started the dehumidifier, tidied, batteries out of the laser.

Heard some moths at the screen. Some were really big! I checked their eyeballs, some orange, some pink! Equal double stars!

Checked the remaining space: 7 hours.

2:36. Good night!

Chatted with Barry for a bit during the evening. We talked about certificate observing list requirements.