Observations -18th January 2018

Good evening, all.
Seeing that we have yet another cloudy Friday night, I thought I would take this opportunity to share highlights of my observing session on Thursday night 18th January. My location was my back garden. As usual my main telescope is a William Optics 158 mm apochromatic refractor on a Berlebach Planet altazimuth mount. Mirror diagonals are fitted at all times. I observed from 5 till 7 pm, and 8.30 to 10 pm. I never exceeded 167X at any time. There was a bit of a breeze virtually none stop. But the sky was almost totally clear for the entire time. Transparency was very good with no crescent Moon shining. Although a lot of the objects are very well known to many of you, I still enjoyed my time nevertheless. However some of the closing items will be new to many of you.

1. Polaris is always a joy to seek out. That magnitude 9 B companion is great fun to watch. It circles the primary throughout the whole year. Okay -the position angle (PA) does not change. But at 5.20 pm it was in the 1 o'clock position. Nicely seen at 40X and 112X.
2. I then headed for Lyra. Epsilon 1,2 Lyrae are irresistible. Epsilon 1 is the tighter of the two with a separation of 2.3". Its magnitudes are 5.2 and 6.1 and the PA is 345 degrees. Epsilon 2 Lyrae is quite a bit easier. The separation is 2.4". Its magnitudes are 5.3 and 5.4; PA is 75 degrees. There is a 5th 10.4 magnitude star which forms a charming triangle with the double -double. All 5 stars are seen at 112X.
3. Also nearby is a wide double star called Zeta Lyrae. Its magnitudes are 4.3 and 5.6 with a wide separation of 44". The PA is 150 degrees. The binary is easily split at 11X and 40X. To study the colours I increased to 112X. This time round I thought they were yellow -white and slight blue. Please feel free to disagree!
4. As Cygnus was still a decent height in the north western sky, I thought it would be nice to have a peek at Albireo. The colours are as reliable as ever: orange primary and blue secondary split at 11X and 40X. No need to go higher. 3.2 and 4.7 are the magnitudes. PA is 54 degrees. Separation is 34.7".
5. Omicron 1 Cygni I have not studied for some years. The orange primary's magnitude is 3.8. The blue secondary 30 Cygni is 4.8. The third star is also blue -and is magnitude 7. These are lovely to observe at 11X and 40X. The separations are 208" and 336". The pattern displays a fine curve.
6. I then headed to the southern sky and easily split Gamma Arietis (Mesarthim) at 40X. This lovely binary is easy to find directly south of Beta Arietis (Sharatan). Its magnitudes are 4.5 and 4.6. The separation is 7.4". The PA is 1 degree. Both stars are pure white. I've lost count as to how many times I've observed Mesarthim over the years.
7. John O'Neill and many others on Cloudy Nights have given us plenty of heads-up regarding the brilliance of Mira -the wonderful one (Omicron Ceti) in recent months. I can safely say that I cannot remember ever seeing it with my own unaided eyes throughout my whole life! It clearly is near magnitude 3 to 3.5 at the moment. I instantly recognised its strong orange colour shining so brightly and its fainter orange optical companion Tyc 4693 1146 (magnitude 9.4) right next to it. Both stars are M class. So what a treat they are. I've heard it said that Mira swells and shrinks in size over a 331 day period. I have observed when it is faint at magnitude 9.
8. Back I go to Andromeda. Almach (Gamma Andromedae) is very inviting. This glorious binary is so well known to us all. But its breathtaking colours are always worth a look. Yellow -orange and blue are easily noticed at 112X. The separation is 9.4". The PA is 63 degrees. The magnitudes are 2.3 and 5. This is a good binary for beginners.
9. Once I have the open star cluster NGC 7686 at 40X in my main scope, I know that now is the time to have fun with some faint gems in Andromeda. I start off with 2 first time binaries.
10. Struve 2985 has a nice yellow primary of magnitude 7.2. The secondary is 8. The separation is 15.8". The PA is 256 degrees. 40X is all that is required A and B.
11. Struve 2987 is slightly more difficult. A is 7.4. B is 10.4. The separation is 4.2". The PA is 150 degrees. 112X is required to observe A and B. A is yellow.
12. And so finally, I go carbon star hunting once again. Here I have for you all my 10th observed carbon star in Andromeda; and my 53rd overall. EU Andromedae is seriously faint at magnitude 10.4. There is a 5 star asterism to the west of it, and I found this vital to pinpoint its location. In my 28 mm 2"eyepiece, I can see these 5 stars. But I needed high concentration to spot the dim red star directly to their eastern side at 40X. But at 112X in my Pentax 10 mm, EU Andromedae was wonderfully dim and red to behold. And I used 140X and 167X to make it a bit more distinctive for my eye. It nearly goes invisible when I look at it directly at these magnifications. So inverted vision was sometimes needed to see it. I then imagined what it must be like to be on a planet orbiting an orange -red carbon star. Maybe the star would be much smaller in the sky, and the planet would be a lot nearer than our Earth is to the Sun. Would the colour be noticed? Maybe the temperatures on the planet would be quite different. After all, in our skies EU Andromedae is magnitude 10.4. I wonder what its distance is from us. I might get back to you about that. According to my Guide 9.1 programme, the star is not variable.

Thank you for reading.

Clear skies from Aubrey.

As usual great report Aubrey.
Attempted for 1st time to observe Mira back around November but unable to find just using binoculars. Was hoping to get some club members to have a look and maybe observe and photograph its brightening but unfortunately as usual skies clouded over for days if not longer and interest waned!
You're making great use of that 6" so keep up good work and look forward to more updates.

John

It sure is great to hear from my old pal John from Cork.
I personally reckon we will see Mira with our own eyes until the end of February.
And I agree with you we are getting so many cloudy nights at present.
I want to observe the Blue Moon on Wednesday.
But I have my doubts as we speak.

Aubrey.