Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Uranometria, Struve 2668 and The Living Star Atlas

I was fortunate last night to do a trial run of the Antares 105 and the TV Pronto all at once. Two scopes that are very, very different in how they approach the night sky, granted they are both refractors, they are very different. 8X50 finder scopes are generally adequate for most if not all types of night sky star hopping, but they start to show their limitation with really super-detailed atlas's like Uranometria. Last night I cracked open the Uranometria for the first time in 2009 and immediately felt out of touch and out of whack with the image scale. But after a few false starts, I turned to the Pronto for some interpretation and sure enough, it showed an incredible amount of detail as a finder telescope. It was clearly much better than any standard 8X50 finder scopes obviously with it's shear quality of optics. The Pronto was not physically attached to the Antares, it was sitting on an AZ-3 Mount beside it. There are no plans to adapt the Pronto physically to any telescope at this time.

Struve 2668--With the Pronto as the finder and the Antares as the primary observing scope I was able to do two things at once. Searching for Struve 2668 in Cygnus I could not really make out what I really needed to star hop in the 8X50, but the Pronto began to show details I really hoped to see. Struve 2668 was not all by itself. It's located in a small open cluster known as Do 5 which the 8X50 failed to see, but the Pronto readily saw beside a "wall" of four dimly lit stars. I wasn't just finding, I was observing at the same time. That's a nice feeling. Struve 2668 is a very nice double but not a very bright one and the companion is not easy to spot at first. No problem though in the Antares 105mm. The magnitudes are 6.3 and 8.5 respectively with a separation of 3.4".

Next time someone calls your small, high quality refractor a glorified finder scope, thank them! The Pronto and the Antares 105 make a great team.

M:)


5 comments:

  1. Hey Marc nice write up about Struve 2668 and your telescope pairing!Sounds like a match made in heaven for the heavens. You have a double double going on here between the two!

    Which cluster can this pair be found? I was also in Cygnus last night, had a hoot! Lots of doubles and multiples in the clusters I observed. I did not even attempt to post them all today. Glad you have sky to enjoy.

    I think Mr.Drive By is going to getting in on this stuff, clusters and doubles.

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  2. What I should say is that we had a "honk" in Cygnus!

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  3. It was a good first start but I wasn't able to capitalize on the opportunity because I had to be elsewhere that evening, so a shorty report only. The cluster it is related to is known as Do 5 on the Uranometria Vol 1, the most recent edition.

    Would be nice to have a coast to coast on doubles, if that were possible.

    M:)

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  4. Hi Marc. I enjoy your blog. However between you and Sidewalk guy you cost me $21.00 on a new Double Star Atlas. Just got in from viewing some of your target. I think we might be up for a VDblSO(Virtual Double Star Observation) session. How 'bout it Sparks, NV Sidewalk Guy?

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  5. Thanks Drive-By for the kind words...It's the best $21.00 you will spend!

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