An Atlas for the Struve Double Hunters...The CDSA

This was Drive-By's idea, he got it first I think but I will have to ask SUG if he got it first. But anyway...There are two "killer" DSO (Deep Sky Objects) star atlas's. They are the Uranometria 2000.0 and the Sky Atlas 2000.0 and their respecitve resource guides. For shear volume of stars, there is the out-of-print (WHY??) Millennium Star Atlas. One of the best compact atlas's is the Pocket Sky Atlas, again another wonderful atlas. Norton's is a classic, and the original Cambridge Star Atlas too is another wonderful atlas to work from.

What about double stars? Well, James Mullaney and uranographer extrodinaire, Wil Tirion have teamed up to make a very impressive and exhausitive atlas for the double star hunters....The Cambridge Double Star Atlas with an exhausitive "hit list" and a great amount of detail down to 7.5 mag or fainter. An excellent companion to the traditional DSO favourites like the Uranometria and Sky Atlas 2000.0. However, the CDSA does have DSO's listed but it is minimized to keep the clutter down on the atlas. Some may view this as a bit of a negative since the smaller Pocket Sky Atlas has more DSO's. Not so though, as the beauty of this atlas are the various labels pointing the observer to a double star. It's built for telescopes of all aperture and some of these doubles will require pristine, steady skies and excellent, collimated optics.

Structurally it is typical Tirion much like the layout of the Sky Atlas 2000.0 and Uranometria, a sort of "standard feel" to it. DSO's are labeled in colour as is the Milky Way in traditional "Blue" much like the desk and deluxe editions of the larger Sky Atlas 2000.0. Double stars are labeled in green with their appropriate discoverer/catalogue

Coupled with Sissy Haas' Double Stars For Small Telescopes the CDSA will prove to be invaluable as it takes a lot of the guess work out. Are you a double star hunter? Get this atlas!

Post of the Day

"Look skyward now...
And see above... INFINITY
Vast and dark and deep
And endless... your heritage:
Silent clouds of stars,
Other worlds uncountable and other suns
beyond numbering
And realms of fire-mist and star-cities
as grains of sand...
Drifting...
Across the void...
Across the gulf of night...
Across the endless rain of years...
Across the ages."

Anonymous

Back in business...sort of.

I wouldn't call it clear by any stretch. Poor transparency and poor seeing. Lots of twinkling up there, but hey, it's clear enough for me to do what I need to do.

You would think there was a lot on the line here, but really, there is not. No matter how you slice there was no way I would have gotten rid of the old Refractor if it completely failed the test. But what was on the line was the matter of it being surplus and confined to the odd night here and there. Essentially to retire with dignity and stay in storage while the other two get all the fun. Not a nice scenario.

...Jim, the Enterprise is twenty years old, we feel her day is over...

Not so fast Admiral Morrow. First, it's not called Enterprise, and secondly, it isn't over and here's why.

Got the SP-C102 set up late as usual and mostly in the dark. However, it was hoisted onto the SP mount with the steel legs for the first time. It has not yet been on the steel legs as of yet. First thing was to look at any star. Sadr was my choice, not too bright, but not to faint. Result? Apart from crummy seeing...COLLIMATED!. The star test revealed the out of focus image on both sides is spot on. Seeing interfered a bit, but the end result was EXACTLY what I wanted.

But, if you're going to play with the other kids, you're gonna have to do better than that. Swung over to Alpha Hercules just to see what a double star was going to do that was slightly more challenging than say, Albireo. Again spot on with perfect concentric rings, albeit seeing again being a challenge. Then it struck me...no not the OTA although that would have been enlightening. It's performing better than ever before. Better than when I first got it. What does that say?

Struve time. Again, you want to play with the other kids, you better be a Struve hunter because that's the in thing right now on this blog. Struve 2668 proved to be easier to find, go figure as it took me forever last time. Not a problem. The old Refractor showed it as a nice tight double with contrasting colours and very nicely control of the glare of the primary. Struve hunter? Well one down, many more to go. But it looks like we are capable here.

Double Double: Probably the best I have seen it ever in the SP-C102, sharper than the Pronto which says a lot about how good the collimation is now. No trouble here.

Albireo: With K out now with me, she wanted to look at a pretty double and Albireo, dedicated to both of us, was very nice indeed, but wasn't used as a test.

End result: I would say that this is a tremendous improvement over what was happening and has given a reprieve so to speak for the old Refractor which is great because it's always been there. The OTA is looking beat up but this test green lights any major overhaul to the tube in the future.

So does that make the other two surplus? Well not the Pronto....

M:)

Tin Foil Hat Updated

My "other" blog...a photoblog that I have neglected a bit but I hope to get out and shoot more soon.

Tin Foil Hat: Stories Through Images

Enjoy

M:)

Way Out! The "Old 102" gets collimated

My sneaking suspicions about the "Old 102" were confirmed today as I set up the collimating tool and the OTA and it was out. No, it was WAY OUT! I started to notice that I could not get a very sharp image from it when lined up against the Pronto or the Antares 105. Since the other two were sharing the load, the SP-C102 was shelved into the background. Yet something was always nagging at me because, despite the greater false colour (although far from annoying), it's an easier refractor to work with than the longer Antares.

Following the instructions in my last posting, Refractor Collimation, I was able to get the two donuts together using the push-pull cell. It wasn't difficult, just a bit time consuming although at one point I thought I was going in circles. The other problem I had was that one screw is looking at bit stripped but I managed. Now the only thing I am waiting for are clear skies which if you have been following (check the right hand side of the blog), aren't going to be anytime soon.

Just to check and compare, I decided to look at the Pronto's collimation and to my surprise, its now worse than the SP-C102. This does not come as a shock as the Pronto being second hand, needs to visit Uncle Al at Tele Vue to get a tune up. The Pronto has been delivering some excellent views despite this small handicap, but I expect it will head down towards the end of this year for some servicing. You cannot adjust a Pronto's lens cell, it has to go down to the shop.

Maybe I will have a report on the SP-C102 soon, but I expect clouds and more rain until at least mid to late next week...which stinks!

M:)