Hi there
Finally a clear night, the seeing was far from perfect and transparency was pretty low, but who cares, stars at long last.:woohoo:
OK, took in the sights of Aquila, not noted for it's deep-sky objects, but home to some damned nice doubles. Here's what I dredged up:
5 Aquilae An unequal pair of white stars, obvious at low magnification the components being 5.5 and 7.5 with a generous 13" separation.
STF 2404 A pretty orange couple, tight at 3.5" sep. They sit in a field of faint stars, at mag. 6 and 7 they are obvious and worth a visit.
11 Aquilae An orange white combo in a busy field, the primary outshines the secondary by 3 magnitudes, with a separation of 17" this is not a problem, I saw it best at 63X.
STF 2426 A gem of a pair with a 7th mag. orange primary floating in space accompanied by an 8th mag. azure friend. Not the brightest stars in the FOV, but what a combination of colours, generous at 17" sep. This pair is worth hunting down for the colour contrast, a highlight of the night.
STF 2425 Another orange Aquila primary with a white friend, bright at 7th and 8th mag. respectively. There is a line of stars running beneath the pair that looked like a snake slithering along and boasting a diamond shaped head. Interesting asterism.
15 Aquilae Another glorious orange pair, at 27X this pair stood out from the field of stars because of their burnt orange colour. Moving up to 63X brought out their true beauty as the number of field stars diminished and the pair took centre stage. Unequal at 5.5 and 7. At 38" sep. they are within the reach of all scopes.
STF 2434 Unequal orange and white, how many orange stars reside in Aquila? Close in magnitudes at 8 and 8.5 and wide at 24" making it an easy grab. The FOV is sparse at 63X, this is due to a combination of the seeing and the rising moon ensuring that most field will be washed of all but the brightest stars.
STF 2443 A white pair of 8 and 8.5 mag. stars, close at 6", but due to their closesness in brightness not difficult, they sit in an empty field at 103X.
HJ 881B & HJ 881C A triple system here with a white primary that outshines the companions by 2 magnitudes being 7.5. The B system is a tight orange white pair sitting at 7" in separation, faint at 9.5 mag each. The C system, comprising the B system and the white primary is generous at 33", seen best at 103X. A nice triple worth seeking out.
STF 2519 An equal white pair of 8th mag. stars separated by 13" of space.
STF 2537 Another white pair sitting at 8.5 and 9th mag. respectively, wide at 19". Due to the moonlight at 103X all I can see is another 6 stars in the FOV.
57 Aquilae Sitting in the Milky Way 57 shows an unequal 5th and 6th mag. white pair in a busy field. There is a wide expanse of space between the companions, 36" and easy to pull in.
STF 2624 A pair of 8th mag. companions, sitting at 5" sep. it required a little more magnification to split. There is a false representation of Crux lying beneath the pair.
STT 202 Yellow and white giving a nice subtle contrast in colours, the yellow colour being almost washed out. 63X showed the pair floating in a nice field of stars including an equalateral triangle off to the west.
SAO 144450 Another yellow white pair, this pair of 6th and 7th mag. stars have a sep. of 60 making this an easy grab. The yellow is stronger than STT 202 and showed more prominent. An aeroplane is flying towards the pair from the west, well, the four stars look like an aeroplane to me.
Pleased to be out under the stars again I was pleased with my haul. There are many more doubles in Aquila, but the conditions last evening didn't allow for seeking them.
I finished the evening by taking a quick glance at Uranus and Neptune, enjoying the colours, again under better conditions their colours would be more striking.
Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better programs, and the universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the universe is winning.
Rich Cook
  