General Session - August 20, 2018

Constellation: Ursa Major
Planets: Saturn
Moon

Location: Home
Date: 2018-08-20
Time: 9:00 PM - 11:30 PM ADT
Equipment: 6" SkyWatcher 150P Dobsonian telescope + eyepieces (10 mm, 25 mm wide angle, 30 mm with 2" adapter)
Magnification: x48
Transparency: Fair (2)
Seeing: Fair (2)
Temperature: 14º C 
Moisture/Dew forming on surfaces.

Moon
We were playing with my newly-acquired 6” Dobsonian (gifted to me after the Kejimkujik DSW). Aligned the finder scope with the tube and ‘pushed’ it to the Moon in the E-SE sky. It provided me an upside-down view of the Moon, but lunar features were still easily identified with the mirror-reverse lunar maps.

Refer to Explore the Moon (Telescope) - August 20, 2018 for details.

Also completed this evening was IWLOP #100 - Bullialdus.
Observing the Moon with new 6" Dobsonian
Moon. iPhone 6s Plus attached with NexYZ
           Corrected for north-south
  © Judy Black. ISO 25, 1/120 sec @ f/2.2
Saturn
Time: 9:20 PM ADT
Equipment: telescope + 25 mm eyepiece
Magnification: x48
Saturn was in the SE sky above our neighbour's back shed. The telescope very clearly provided a view of Saturn and its rings. No ring separation but could see a gap between the planet and its ring structures. This view, however, did vary with the changing atmosphere.

Ursa Major
Time: 10:30 PM ADT
Equipment: Telescope + 10 mm, 25 mm, 30 mm eyepieces
S&T Chart Reference: 31, 32, 33, 43, F
Magnification: x120, x48, x40

In all 3 eyepieces, Mizar was seen asa double star. As in 2016, there was a third star that formed a triangle with Mizar and Alcor; I later identified it as HD116798.

Below HD 328226 was a line of 4 stars, ranging in magnitude of 11.1 - 13.6 (#1 - #4 in the sketch).

The identified HD238226 and a fainter magnitude 12.9 star to its right as GAIA 1563780481323958784 (#5 in the sketch). Quite the handle!

 

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