> seeing was flat 5/5, crystalline. People were using all
> kinds of
> immoderate magnifications to play with Porrima.
Hiya all
Although the gentlemen who introduced me to the tight
double star we observed in the rocket launcher referred
to it as Porrima (gamma with a separation of 3/4 to 1 arc
second), as judging by my star charts, it appears that it
may be (51 Vir) instead which is much much tighter.
Given that Porrima has a separation of 3.6". The object
observed was the closest double I have ever seen. We
finally reached concensus on the double nature of the
object at 540x, and the best view was had at 740x.
I spent about an hour yesterday trying to determine the
separation of 51 Vir, and haven't reached any conclusions
yet. Hipparcos says it's .45 arcsecond, but these things
change year by year and it may quite a bit wider now.
I'm not a very experienced double star observer though so
my comments should be taken with a grain of salt (or
pepper as you like).
cheers, and thanks for sharing such a beautiful night
Craig
--- "Dillon, Dillon, & Kuh" <mavericks@No-Spam>
wrote:
> We measured the sky at 6.0 LM, about a magnitude below
> what y'all
> were getting at Plettstone. By no means shabby, though,
> and the
> seeing was flat 5/5, crystalline. People were using all
> kinds of
> immoderate magnifications to play with Porrima.
>
> Someone was up on Coulter, but the propane lamps at the
> camping area
> were way too bright, and we didn't go there. A nice
> couple of people
> from Oakland were trying to get a new GPS-enabled thing
> to work from
> the SW lot, and Czerwinski and I made sympathetic
> noises before
> disappearing into the dark. Kingsley was by himself in
> regal splendor
> on the Knoll, and there was a compact but jovial crew
> on Ranger Row.
> CL came by to wish us well, and Ranger Andrea hung out
> for a while
> and mooched views. Elena and Craig were there, along
> with Peters
> McKone and Natscher, Bobs Jardine, Baldwin and
> Czerwinski, Nathaniel
> and David, and Jim Everitt.
>
> Jardine showed us exactly where Vesta was, and sure
> enough several of
> us could see it naked eye. I'd seen Vesta a couple of
> years before
> when it was sailing thru the Hyades, and seen Ceres
> before that, but
> had no idea of ever seeing an aasteroid naked eye. A
> real thrill. Joe
> Bob mentioned as how it's the 10th of 10 solar system
> objects we can
> see without optical aid. 3rd biggest of the asteroids
> but by far with
> the brightest albedo. Albedo, not libido.
>
> Kingsley was onto a supernova on the edge of 3169 in
> Leo, more
> genuine excitement.
>
> I got real focused on 12 galaxies in Virgo, to finish
> page 7 in my
> Dickinson atlas project. Raved some when finished. Now
> having spent
> some quality time transcribing found objects from
> Edmund's Mag 6
> atlas onto SkyAtlas, lo and behold dudes and ducesses I
> found 4 more
> objects, all of which are thankfully in the spring sky:
> 1788, bright
> EN in western Orion, and 3 galaxies - 3631 in UMa, 5371
> in CVn, and
> 5676 in Bootes.
>
> Among those 12 galaxies last night are some real
> beauties. Fuller
> report to follow.
> It was a great night in all, very refreshing for us
> all. We were grateful.
>
>
> DDK
>
>
> --
> Jamie Dillon <*> <mavericks@No-Spam>
> http://www.winepress.com/jd1.htm
> This message has been sent using 100% recycled
electrons.
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