Monday part two (Bradford)

Took in Jupiter and Saturn walking through the driveway. Very nice. Considered looking at them with my SP-C8. I didn't recall seeing Saturn telescopically this year...

1:56. Back in the "observatory" from trip inside.

Instrument: Celestron 8-inch SCT
Mount: Vixen Super Polaris
Method: slewing and tracking with IDEA GoToStar

I thought the arrangement of μ Sgr fascinating.

2:06. Fiddled with SkyTools. Couldn't seem to get the Context Viewer to work. Pigging out.

2:09. Was not seeing the same thing. The B star seemed much closer to A. Due west. Half the distance compared to the computer. I did not see the C star at all. Tried a horizontal flip in the software. I could not get the Interactive Atlas to work right. 

Fire truck it.

Accidentally disable tracking from the software.

Disconnected, reconnected, slewed, abort. Disconnected, reconnected, slewed. Not working. Disconnected, reconnected, slewed. Again. Disconnected, reconnected, slewed. Panned.

Went to Jupiter. No red spot.

2:16. Really colourful. Lots of features despite the low elevation (but close to Earth). White band. Equatorial belt was tan. Barge right in the middle. No shadows. Two moons each side. One was a bit closer. Io? [ed: Yes.] 2 o'clock through 8. There was a star at 9. The air was boiling. [ed: 2.6 airmasses.]

Looked for a good target. Found an item to check, a candidate in my certificate programme draft list.

2:22. Viewed HD 202073 aka Burnham 270 in Equuleus. I saw the bright wide pair: that was D. Extremely wide. Huh. Too wide? A four-star system. Went looking for C, mag 12.7. Seeing was bad. For another day...

To the south-east, I noted the unmarked double. SkyTools shows star Tycho 539-1523-1. [ed: SkyTools also shows a slightly dimmer star to the west, TYC 539-1399-1. The WDS shows an entry essentially at this location: HJ 3015. Mag 11.2 and 11.8 stars, 16.3", PA 264. Measured angle in ST3P: 16", 263.]

Come on, mouse, you can do it. Don't fail me now.

Slewed to next, the asteroid. Right away I saw a few doubles in the ocular field.

Schmeg! More tech trouble.

Found it!

2:35. Viewed star Struve 3111 (HD 344338), mag 10.1, in Vul. Pallas (2) was in the arc of stars, to the north-east, same mag as the two stars, around magnitude 10. The south-west end of the curve. Between Tycho 1612-978 (in the middle) and 1612-1253 (to the north-east). A nice equidistant arc. Also near 1612-1119. Again, Pallas was in an arc: 1253, asteroid, 978, 3111.

Tried turning on the Motion Trails in the app. It worked but no labels appeared. [ed: 'cause the overall chart labels were surpressed.]

Considered 19 Cyg, a Haas target.

2:45. In the low power eyepiece, my first impression, a yellow star, warm yellow or orange primary. Extremely dim, directly below, blue? About 4 or 5 mags different. Boat load of stuff. Big flying V (above) to the north-west. Wow. A ton of stuff here. Top of the V there was a noted double... [ed: MLB 876.] Bright star, well, somewhat bright, below, south-east, appeared to the B star. North-west I felt I was seeing the D star, 2½ times the distance, the other way from B, opposite. Beside B, C? Was supposed to be to my right (east of A). Didn't see it. E between D? No joy. Saw the gaggle of stars to the south-west with Tycho 3137-962.

Changed from the baader to the Pentax.

I saw an undesignated pair to the north-east with J195046.3+384605. Huh.

2:50. Aimed at next object. Lovely Saturn!

2:56. North was to my bottom-right. Software showed a gaggle of moons below. Too tight, too dim, too much glare from the host.

I saw Rhea at the 1 o'clock position, really faint, further out, inline with the rings. Iapetus inline too, way out. Titan was 6 o'clock. Spotted two bright stars, including HD 111624. Saw a far-away star above the north pole.

OK. A good note to finish on.

It was late.

3:01. Hibernated the computer.

Wanted to keep the mount profile so I considered parking the 'scope. But I knew it wouldn't work, with the GoToStar treating park-position as toward Polaris. No room under the canopy. I wondered about a programmable park position... Didn't remember seeing that before.

3:05. Oregon check: 57%, 11.0, rain.

Shutdown and packed critical items. Zipped up. Slow going (pulling down on the arches).

I heard birds chirping! The Sun was due soon...

3:16. Inside. And... sleep!

§

Imaged 19 Cyg on 7 Sep '20.