Observing Notesfrom the Tuckahoe IrregularsJoe Wojtecki and myself took a last second trip to Tuckahoe Sunday night for some double star observing. We both took our refractors. It was such an amazingly clear and steady night that a lot of the objects I observed were the best I'd seen them through this four-inch scope. First on my list of objects was Jupiter. A shadow transit, a moon transit and the Great Red (Cream) Spot were all visible within an hour of arriving. I have never seen so much detail on this planet through the small scope. It was stunning. The atmosphere was extremely steady. I watched the planet for a good 45 minutes to see the shadow and moon transit. It was worth the wait. Saturn looked very nice as well but my C8 does a much better job on it After staring at both of these planets for a good hour I moved on to my list of doubles in Canis Major and Canis Minor. Moonlit nights are excellent times to split those tight double stars. The glare of the components are taken down a notch allowing a much cleaner split although subtle colors are taken away almost completely. But there's always a trade off somewhere with astronomy isn't there? But it's still nice to not waste a perfectly good night just because the moon is out. I found many interesting quadruple systems and triple systems and many different doubles in the same field. Canis Major and Minor have a very nice variety in them. I won't go into much detail at all because I didn't catalogue any of them. I just went out for observing's sake. Joe and I traded views back and forth and tried very hard to see the Sirius companion. But of course it was impossible. A 2.2 arc second separation with a huge magnitude difference, I'm afraid this is beyond my reach. But it was worth a shot since the night was so steady. After we finished our observations I turned my attention the big old moon. Wow it was just spectacular! I mean it was the clearest I can ever remember seeing it. I stared at it for a good half hour. The temperature started off very mild but then quickly dropped to below freezing. There wasn't a whole lot of moisture and dew didn't prove to be a problem until we started to pack it up for the evening. It was a wonderful night of observing. It's nice to get out under the sky when the moon is out because the pressure is off to see all the faint fuzzies. You don't have to feel guilty of wasting a good dark night for staring at the planets and brighter stars for hours. And you do not need to worry about ruining your night vision when you take a good long look at the moon! It's surprising how much can be seen even under a near full moon. So get your scopes out in the backyard and look at a few things. I hope to see you out in the field. Doug Norton |