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[Kalvis]

By 8 p.m. last night (Wed, 21 Sep 2005) the clouds had mostly given way to clear skies and the moon was not yet shining its spotlight over the celestial bowl. Air was dry, wind was moderate, and temperatures were in the comfortable low 70's so I was glad to haul out my scope and head into the backyard for some observing. I've been a faithful buyer (and now subscriber) of the new Sky & Telescope offshoot magazine called Night Sky and the Sep/Oct 05 issue had an intriguing article about multiple stars. I thought that spotting the eight which were described could be a challenge in the couple of hours I was willing to devote, but in the end my success rate was 100%. Here is my list of targets:

1. Epsilon Lyrae (Double double) -- I had found and split them in previous sessions, but it was a nice start
2. Albireo (Beta Cygni) -- spotted before, but gorgeous colors nevertheless
3. Alya (Theta Serpentis) -- like a par of tiny pear earrings
4. Omricon-1 Cygni -- a patriotic red-white-blue triple system
5. Enif (Epsilon Pegasi) -- tried tapping my scope and tripod, but couldn't observe the swinging action of the smaller violet star for which the nickname "Pendulum Star" has been given
6. Gamma Delphini -- surprisingly was able to spot (not split) this naked eye despite being mag. 4.5 and competing with bright streetlights in the nearby alley
7. Delta Cephei -- the Cepheid prototype for which all others are named
8. Almach (Gamma Andromedae) -- a close second to the grandeur of Albireo

Also found the Double Cluster in Perseus which had eluded me before. Will have to wait for darker skies and bigger scopes to see in these groups in more detail.

Lastly, the Moon and Mars cleared the rooftops of my neighbors to the East allowing me to put some icing on the cake. Although I could not get any details out of the planet at my highest possible magnification, our own natural satellite was astoundingly beautiful. I'm certain that seeing Magnificent Desolation the previous evening had something to do with my perception...

FYI, I was using a Hardin Optical Star HOC 80mm f6 achromatic refractor with 2x TeleVue Barlow and Astrola Plossl 9mm and 25mm e.p.'s giving 38x and 107x respectively. Finding was done exclusively with star charts, my scope mounted green laser pointer and star hopping when needed.

Sure is a satisfying way to spend a couple of hours!

Kalvis

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Kalvis,

What an excellent list of targets you bagged. Some I haven't targeted yet. I haven't done the "Pendulum" technique on Pegasi...you must show me.

Enjoy these short sleeve weather evenings, as the bite of winter is tagging along with Orion...

Great session!

[Kalvis]

The "pendulum technique" is really nothing special. I've retyped the partial paragraph from pg. 44 of the Sept/Oct 2005 issue of Night Sky which explains it in simple terms:

Enif (is) one of the few deep-sky objects that "does something" while you watch it. A faint bluish violet companion attends the yellowish and much brighter primary at a wide distance. Gently tapping or shaking your telescope tube causes the dimmer star to appear to swing back and forth like a pendulum. this phenomenon was first noticed by the great 19th-century observer John Herschel, who correctly deduced that light from the fainter star takes longer to stimulate the retina, so its motion appears to lag behind that of the brighter star. While you can see this effect in a 4-inch scope at 50x, it becomes ever more striking as aperture increases. Skygazers have nicknamed Enif the "Pendulum Star."

Perhaps the size of my 80mm refractor was a limiting factor. I would be interested to hear from others who are able to observe pendulum behavior with Enif. Please be sure to describe the conditions and equipment which worked and which didn't.

Kalvis

[Al Degutis]

I had hoped to get out this weekend to do some observing, and wanted to check out those doubles you listed but the sky forecasts are dismal. I haven't observed many doubles except for Alberio. Next time I get some observing time, I'll let you know how it looks in an 8" SCT.

[Al Degutis]

I got out to the Stargate observing deck last night around 10:30pm local time and hunted doubles. I printed finder charts for these using SkyTools. They all seemed easy enough (coming from a man that utilizes the 8" LX200's goto) so I powered up, sync'd and then manually slew to them. I surprised myself and nailed all of them without too much trouble using just the finder and the charts.

• Epsilon Lyrae (Double double) - easy
  
• Albireo (Beta Cygni) - I check this one out every night it's out while I'm observing
  
• Omricon-1 Cygni -- my eyes but be old, saw the triple but didn't get any color
  
• Enif (Epsilon Pegasi) -- I tried the "Pendulum Effect" but didn't see it
  
• Gamma Delphini - I think I split this one, but I have to check my notes/sketch at home.
  

The SkyTools charts are great because they show you exactly where to position the brighter stars in the finder and the targets were easily in the FOV of the 22mm Lanthanum SuperWide ep.

I only spent an hour observing and sketching since I had to get up for work at 4:30am. It sure was tough going in.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Al,

I have never attempted the Pendulum effect. Perhaps it's more noticible on either stronger or weaker mounts?

Whwn I show the public Alberio, it gives me the opportunity to talk about the age of stars and the color that shows us their age. Always a favorite.

Great that you get out and put that pier thru it's paces...

[tim]

Kalvis and Al
Got me interested in Enif (Epsilon Pegasi) and I was finally able to get a clear night on one of my nights off. Man, it must be about a month since I last was able to do some observing. Anyway I found that if I just move the scope back and forth very slightly I could see the pendulum affect nicely. Mars, in my 5" newtonian showed me just one dark line across the disk. It should look a bit better at the end of the month when it's higher for my observing time and the cool crisp clear autumn sky. Other DSO's targeted were the Hyades, Pleiades and the double clusters. Another cluster close by the Hyades just a few degrees to the NNW is ngc 1647, if that was it (i'm not quite sure) was just a raggedy oval with nothing in the middle. The big surprise for the night was in the constellation Aries. splitting the double star Mesarthim. It is a magnitude 3.87 and the other star Gamma1 ari is at 4.62. They are so close they almost touch. So cool.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

I haven't had a real honest & serious observation session in some time now...I think late spring...

You fellas now got me feeling guilty and eager to try out the pendullum effect.

Thanks Tim for your post, and it's always great to return to the eyepiece after some time!...

[Al Degutis]

tim said:

Kalvis and Al
Got me interested in Enif (Epsilon Pegasi) and I was finally able to get a clear night on one of my nights off. Man, it must be about a month since I last was able to do some observing. Anyway I found that if I just move the scope back and forth very slightly I could see the pendulum affect nicely.

Cool. I'll have to try it again.

Mars, in my 5" newtonian showed me just one dark line across the disk. It should look a bit better at the end of the month when it's higher for my observing time and the cool crisp clear autumn sky.

Thursday night, while observing Mars through the coming and going veil of clouds I was barely able to make out that single dark line across the disk. I was out Friday night, a night with better seeing and NO clouds. I was imaging M31 with my DSLR piggybacked on the LX200 and observed Mars at the end of the session (around 3am) when it was higher in the sky. The dark line was more distinct but I still could not see other details. I'll keep observing it through the month as it moves closer and larger.

[Kalvis]

Saturday night (Oct 1, 2005) at Prairie Skies Star Party while waiting for the thin clouds to clear I spent part of the early evening with others who were hunting multiple stars. One of those guys was our own Chicago Astronomer Bill who had his new Vixen goto mount equipped with his even newer TEC 140 APO refractor. Another was Terry from Indianapolis who had the same refractor placed on a simple Giro alt-az mount. Bill's mount was very solid, and Terry's exhibited considerable wobble from being overloaded. In the end neither pairing was successful in getting the blue-violet companion of Enif to show this darn pendulum affect. After a sideways tap to the scopes both stars seemed to travel in sync with each other without any type of lag. If anything, the larger and brighter yellow star seemed to show a wider swing amplitude than the blue-violet companion. Right or wrong, we concluded that the Night Sky article might have incorrectly described what we were were supposed to see in this pendulum action.

[tim]

Kalvis
That is what I experienced too when I tapped the scope. Both stars moved in sync. Try a slight and slow moving of the scope from side to side. I noticed it also works on other doubles that have about the same distance separation and magnitude difference.

Al
I read your last thread a couple days ago about M39 and I just could not remember if it was a cluster or a nebula until I looked it up just now, and no wonder, that is one I have'nt looked at in a good year. for some reason I have trouble finding it. So that will be my first target hopefully tomorrow night along with M27 ( the dumbbell ) Well got to go drive my daughter to confirmation class. Talk to you later.

[tim]

Greetings fellow earthlings
Caught a two hour break in the clouds friday night. My first target was M39, a very large and loose open cluster. Target #2 was M71 in Sagita, this cluster is described as either a dense open cluster or a loose globular cluster. With the stars ranging between 11th and 14th magnitude I went right past it a few times with my 5" reflector at 60x, it looked a bit better using averted vision. At 120x it pretty much disappeared, I think this cluster would look better at a magnification lower than 60. My last target was M27 ( dumbbell nebula ). This nebula is large and bright. At 60x it looks like a rectangular box. This nebula responds well to the O111 filter, brightening up nicely and giving me more of an hour glass shape.
The milky way background of all three DSO's showed many many more small but clear stars on this night of very good seeing and clarity, giving me a much more pleasant viewing experiance.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Tim,

How cool to catch these objects. I haven't had much luck with the filters here in the city, so I am pleased to hear of the improvement seeing of the targets.

Thanks for sharing.

[tim]

To All
On sunday night I was able to observe alpha 1&2 in copurnicus this is a really cool double. They are both about the same magnitude, and it seems but I am not sure, it appears each one of these also has a double of its own. I have not been able to find any info on them. Any help w/ link would be greatly appreciated.

[Centaur]

tim said:

...I was able to observe alpha 1&2 in copurnicus this is a really cool double.

At first when I saw this in the list of recent postings, I assumed it was referring to a pair of small lunar craters within the larger crater Copernicus. I now realize that you must have been referring to stars within the constellation Capricornus.

[tim]

Curt
Your right its the constellation. take a look the next time you get a chance , pretty cool.