Good evening, everyone.
There is nothing quite like setting up one's telescope up in the backgarden to do some nice evening observing.
One is truly mystified that is has taken me so long to do it. My own personal last time I did this was as long ago as 31st May. Throughout June, July, August, September and most of October 2016, I have had nothing but cloudy skies, Very little rain mind you. Maybe we do need some precipitation after all. We can then have some clear skies afterwards.
Anyway, I did observe 15 objects in all from 5.15 until 9.30 pm on the 10th November; and here are some of them. I own a 158 mm William Optics apochromatic refractor with mirror diagonals. My north is mostly up and my east is to the right.
1. The sky was just beginning to darken and I could not resist starting with Vega. It was almost at the zenith. It is a lovely pure white star with a hint of blue. I was greatly surprised to see 2 of its very faint optical companions -even at this early hour. One at 11 o'clock, the other at 5 o'clock. Their magnitudes are 10 and 11. As we all know, Vega is 0. It is the 5th brightest star in the sky.
2. Epsilon Lyrae is so famous. It is a glorious quadruple star. I could see all 4 components at 112X; but they do all look very nice at 140X. Epsilon 1 Lyrae has a separation of 2.3 arc seconds. Epsilon 2 Lyrae has a separation of 2.4 arc seconds.
3. Sheliak (Beta Lyrae) is another favourite quadruple of mine. The 2 faint components are probably optical, but they do add quite a bit of character to the main double. All 4 stars are very easy to observe at a mere 40X.
4. Very close by to Sheliak is the very famous Ring Nebula M57. I could see the O fully resolved at 140X. Nice and spooky to me.
5. Pi Aquilae is a lovely binary a bit north of Altair. Both stars are quite close in brightness. 6.3 and 6.8 are their magnitudes. The separation is 1.4 arc seconds. The PA is 102 degrees which is at 3 o'clock in my field of view.
6. Mu Cygni is next and it is a fine test for any telescope. Both stars are quite yellow and have magnitudes of 4.8 and 6.2. They are closing, but I could still split them at 167X. 225X is more pleasing though. The separation is now 1.5 arc seconds. The PA is 324 degrees.
7. Nearby in Pegasus, we have the great globular cluster M 15, and it was a real joy to resolve its stars at 225X all the way to the centre.
8. Almach (Gamma Andromedae) was next on the menu, and what a magnificent sight it truly is. I can split at 40X. But to appreciate its colours 112X is required. Orange and blue for me with magnitudes of 2.3 and 5. Its separation is under 10 arc seconds, and the PA is 63 degrees.
9. My only carbon star of the evening was TX Piscium. It was about 7 degrees north of the Moon. Its lovely orange colour was both deep and strong. Its magnitude is about 5.0. So it is quite bright even at 11X.
10. Lastly, I had to spend some time looking at the Moon. On the particular night, it was 11 days after New. So it was Gibbous. The crater Gassendi was reasonably close to the terminator with its A and B satellite craters to its north, but its 2 central peaks were easily visible for all to see. Rupes Recta was very faint even at 112X. Its black line was extremely dim. Promontorium Kelvin looked like an island in Mare Humorum. The almost ghost crater Dopplemayer with its strong central peak looked astounding. But to its north I did have a very pleasant experience. The 3 distant craters to Dopplemayer were distinctive to behold. They are quite small but are almost all the same size in a diagonal pattern . This was the 1st time I have observed them. Their labels are J, K and L. All 3 are in Mare Humorum are straight up from Dopplemayer. I could also see Puiseux and Vitello craters. My last lunar object of the evening was simply stunning. I increased the magnification up to 167X to observe Rima Hippalus. I might have seen 3 Rimae Hippalus except the bright lunar surface prevented me from doing so. But I was very pleased to see even just one. It was the most western one I saw, but its very appearance was a lovely rich black. And its length was a marvellously long 230 kilometres. Its north to south distinctive curve was the highlight of my entire evening. We can see it on the eastern banks of Mare Humorum.
Thank you for reading,
Aubrey.
  