Observing and some musings Part II

It seems I have made up for all that lost observing at StarFest. Typical Full Moon I suppose. Nice and clear but no deep sky observing of any type. But hey, we have Jupiter and those ever present Struve double stars awaiting my three Refractors. I was going for a triple, but the clouds have moved in and it is a tad windy.

The only thing I forgot this time last night was the DC car adapter splitter, so I had to split the power between my car battery and the portable battery. We were having some heavy dew last night, so the heaters were on but since the Antares 105 has a capable dew shield, the heat was kept low (and it did not drain the car battery!).

We took a chapter right of SUG's play book last night. The latest photos are up here as we enjoyed the company of many onlookers taking their first peek through a telescope and their first look at another world, mainly Jupiter although we tried not to blind them too much with that 99% illuminated waning gibbous Moon. People were excited.

After the crowds had left, the skies clouded out a bit and were win a holding pattern. But I was wanting to make sure that I could indeed split the three arc second double, 23 Aquilae. Lucky this time around, as the 105 was in play, and not just the Pronto. But the clouds refused to leave Aquila! I just can't believe this year.

23 Aquilae Update:

With the Antares 105, it was evident, a tiny, faint blue companion that complimented the primary. The basic info on this double star is RA 19h 18m 32.4954s DEC +01° 05′ 06.464″ Apparent magnitude 5.1. Not too difficult to find either since it conveniently located and easily plotted on the Cambridge Double Star Atlas. Four inch aperture and up helps as the Pronto was having problems but I attribute that more to the glow of the Full Moon if anything else.

Struve 2404:

This one is more of a challenge. Easily plotted in the CDSA but fainter than 23 Aquilae and more off the path so it is a challenge in finder scopes. Might be harder to do in a GO-TO scope if you're alignment is off but I can say that the star patterns in the finder will get you there. You might have to be a bit patient with it. Separation is about 3.6 arc seconds. Located at RA 18 50.8 DEC +10 59. Some people see this as a contrasting orange and blue but were sure it lacked contrast as was more orange-orange. Not sure about that yet. Found it to be similar in some respects as a mini version of Alpha Herculis, but a neat find. One for the Struve Hunters!

Here are some of the photos from last night: