[AZ-Observing] mars and doubles from last night
- From: "Chris Adamson" <adamsonfamily@xxxxxxxx>
- To: <AZ-Observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 16 Jun 2001 12:36:00 -0700
Well we finally got some pretty decent seeing just outside of Phoenix last
night, from my backyard. Kerry, Mike and I observed for about 4 hours,
focusing on doubles early in the night and on to Mars for a couple hours
later. Seeing was not outstanding, but in periods I would rate it 7 out of
10. It was not pretty, but we could just split a .7 double in all three
scopes (best in the HD216 Ceravolo) at high power (really more of an
elongation).
DATE/TIME (UT) : 4:00 to 08:00, June 16
LOCATION: My Backyard (S outskirts of Phoenix) Longitude: -112.104082
degrees W, Latitude: 33.303261 degrees N
SEEING: Ranged from 5/10 to 7/10. Without stopping to down to 6" (which I
rarely need to do), I could barely split anything below 1.5". On most of
the doubles, stopping my 16" down to 6" helped and the 8" outperformed the
14.5" and 16" (on doubles by giving a cleaner separation).
TRANSPARENCY: Generally 7 out of 10 (please note this is a relative scale
for my backyard only). Estimate limiting mag 5.0. Did not really search
out the limit telescopically.
WEATHER: 90's
EQUIPMENT: 16" StarMaster, 31, 22, 17, 12, 9 & 7 Naglers: 10, 8, 6, 5, 4
Radians; Paracorr. Also Kerry brought his 14.5" Starmaster and Mike
brought his 8.2" Ceravolo Mak-Newt.
Exact object stats listed at the end of each of the viewing notes below
(mag, surface brightness and size) are from the Astronomical League double
star list, as well as Mars Previewer.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mars - though we observed this the last couple hours of our session, I will
start with it. All of us used magnification in the range of 175x to 250x
with good results. At the mid-point of our observing of Mars, the CM was
about 248.62, diameter of 20.66" and magnitude of -2.35. We all saw a
lot of detail. The entire Syrtis Major region, SE up through Mare
Serpentis, and SW through Mare Tyrrhenum and Mare Hadriacum was very dark
gray, especially Syrtis Major by a shade or two. Heading west and towards
the equator, there was a clear separation between Mare Tyrrhenum and what I
believe is the Tritonis Sinus/Mare Cimmerium region. The Hellas region
was clearly stood out, though interestingly not quite as white as a few
nights ago when I reported. To the north, the Utopia and Uchronia region
was visible. Interestingly, all three of us saw the northern region with
three distinct large patches (sort of like peninsula's) coming up from the
NNE, though that is not really what Mars Previewer shows. Last but far from
least, in careful and long observations, we all three saw clear, but thin
white slivers right where the north polar cap should be (and matches Mars
Previewer) and directly opposite at the southern edge. All in all, a good
session. We did all spend some time going through a whole range of filters.
To me #21 was best on the 16" in bringing out darker surface detail. #25
was also good. The fact that we saw the already mentioned white slivers
with the 80A, 38A and the #47 (yes, the 47) does make me wonder if those
were the caps or were really some clouds.
Zeta Corona Borealis is nearly equal magnitude at 5.1 and 6.0, with a 6.3"
separation. The primary is white, the secondary white/blue. RA 5h 39m.4,
Dec +36° 38'. 91x.
Sigma Corona Borealis is also nearly equal magnitude, at 5.6 and 6.6, with a
6.2" separation. The primary is yellow, the secondary a bit darker yellow,
almost a ruddy orange color. Nice color. RA 16h 14m.7, Dec +33° 52'. 91x.
Kappa Herculis is 5.3 and 6.5 magnitude, with a 28" separation. The primary
is yellow/white, the secondary more yellow (again a slight orange tinge).
RA 16h 08m.1, Dec +17° 03'. 91x.
Delta Herculis is very nice, check it out. The primary is magnitude 3.1,
while the secondary is much dimmer at 8.2. The separation is 8.9". The
primary is white with a slight blue tinge. The secondary is silver/yellow.
RA is 17h 15m.0, Dec +24° 50'. 91x.
Rho Herculis is close in magnitude, 4.6 and 5.6. The separation is 4.1".
Both seem white/blue. 17h 23m.7, Dec +37° 09'. 121x.
16/17 Draconis is an outstanding triple, please do search this one out. One
pair is split by 3.4" (one white, the other danced between slightly blue and
yellow/orange, I could not tell), while the other is 90" out (silver/white).
The magnitudes are 5.4, 5.5, and 6.4. 121x.
Mu Draconis is a relatively tight 2" split, equal magnitude at 5.7. Nice.
Both seem white/yellow at 226x and the 6" aperture mask.
To test seeing HD162734, is a .81 separation double was split at 335x, best
in the Ceravolo. Reasonably clean, but far from perfect. We also tried a .7
separation (I forgot to log the star number). It was messy and elongated,
but do-able (again, especially in the 8").
Well, out again tonight for another round.
Chris
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