Some binaries, like Albireo and Alcor-Mizar are well known, other less so. This time, using my program like always, I dug out two binaries I had no reason to hear about. It’s not exactly „yet another balcony survey„.
HD 36167, HIP 25737 [* in Ori] 31 Ori, K5III, 508ly 4.71m [simbad] [photo-planner]
HD 49933, HIP 32851 [* in Mon] F2V, 96.8ly 5.78m [simbad] [photo-planner]
HD 36167
HD 49933
So this is the first light of the Lunt LS60T Ha 60/500 tube with the B600 filter, beaming its light to an ASI 120 MM-S camera. It’s a nice setup. Last time I observed from my balcony in Hα was in 2015, different times. (tovább…)
No big deal, in the lunch break.
2019.11.11. transit of mercury MG 9479
2019.11.11. transit of mercury MG 9541
2019.11.11. transit of mercury IMG 2019.11.11. 144227
2019.11.11. transit of mercury IMG 2019.11.11. 145224
2019.11.11. transit of mercury IMG 2019.11.11. 151617 1
Continuing my binaries series. HEQ5, N250/1200, TSO ADC, ASI 224MC (cooled), home observatory, mountpusher, very bad seeing.
6 nu1 CMa
HD 55856
On cloudy nights astronomers sleep still do some astronomy, or just something, in order to be doing something. What I did last night: take out my old EQ3 mount — motorized but no goto and no autoguider port — and think about it a bit. After some thinking and measuring, I added a standard ST4 autoguider port to it. While I know there are others who have done so before me, I remember reading some articles a few years back, for this project I didn’t bother to google that/those articles again. Cause it’s not rocket science.
And cause I already have my soapbox driving the HEQ5. Actually I have two soapboxes, so let’s rock.
the steppers used for radec
the steppers used for radec
So I opened the black box the hand controller literally is, to see what’s under the hood.
94 Aqr
After the first „survey”, I did the second one, and in the meanwhile I’ve been improving my photo planner. Cannot really talk about it without some sarcasm, it’s more like a struggle with the city skies, the lack of time and energy to do something more substantial, but hey, life sucks.
Some of the more interesting stars:
As a technical challenge, 12 Aquarii’s separation is under 3 arc seconds. This would not be a problem for bright planets where a few tens of milliseconds are enough to capture a brightly lit frame. The primary, itself a binary is a mere 6m star, and the secondary is 7.5m which means some extra loving is needed to get both the color (difference) and the angular resolution.
51 Eridani’s companion red dot is actually a binary itself, composed of two red dwarfs. The star has a mention in researching exoplanets, so do look it up if you are into such stuff.
91 Aquarii is interesting because of its exoplanet.
