Hello all.
Valerie and I had an excellent observing evening together last night as we scouted around the sky looking at various objects. We stayed in our backyard until 11.45 pm; then the clouds rolled in as they do after 3 hours with my 158 mm apochromatic refractor.
1. We observed a 60% gibbous phased Venus firstly before sunset. Then we waited a while for a little surprise. Venus was 50 minutes north of Mebsuta (Epsilon Geminorum), and I could fit both planet (magnitude -4.2) and star (magnitude 3.1) with a 2" eyepiece at 40X. And then a while later as the sky darkened, we could see Mebsuta's optical companion shining at 9.6 magnitude -all fitted in my 38mm.
2. I saw the GRS on Jupiter again -this time close to the eastern limb. I could also see an elongated barge (Condensation) on the southern edge of the North Equatorial Belt + both the North and South Temperate Belts. Jupiter still continues to impress even at moderate magnifications.
3. As we looked at some of our favourite double stars (Algieba, Iota Leonis, Porrima and Izar), I had checked
www.heavens-above.com
earlier if there was going to be any Iridium Flares. And sure enough there was one between Jupiter and the Gemini twins. Iridium 62 did flare up to a maximum magnitude of -6 at 23.23 pm. Very dramatic sight.
4. As my headline says, I finished off with a splendid triple star -Audacious Alkalurops. Starhopping to it proved quite difficult -my refractor pointing upwards at a steep angle. Reflectors are better at this type of thing and the clouds were slowly moving in all the time. However eventually, I found Mu Bootis A and B split at 40X. I then increased to 112X. Lo and behold, Mu 2 became 2 stars (B and C). The separation of A and B is a very large 109 seconds. Magnitudes are 4.3 and 7.1. The separation of B and C is only 2.2 seconds. Their magnitudes are 7.1 and 7.6. But there are irresistible to split even at a lowly 112X. I have just checked my diaries from the past. I last observed Alkalurops on the 18th May 2002 -almost 13 years ago to the day! It is nice to re-observe an old friend.
Thank you for reading,
Aubrey.
  