... Interesting historical perspective: The time leading up to the publication of my book and the faintest star table (1990) was met with a lot of skepticism....
Roger, I believe there is only a small correpsondence between faintest limiting magnitude in a scope and faintest naked eye limiting magnitude. The reasons...
CBET 1234 reports that Ron Arbour in the UK has discovered the ninth supernova to appear in NGC 6946. The position is reported as 20 34 45.4 +60 05 58...
Brian Skiff
bas@...
Feb 3, 2008 5:54 pm
20976
BN Mon is located at 06 22.0 +07 21, it is a 9th mag star that varies by 3.3 magnitudes. It is an N type carbon star. I saw it as dark orange colored star in...
I saw Abell 15 in Canis Major and even from a fairly dark sky location (21.10) it's a very difficult object. My description was: ef, ps, round, smooth ball....
Hi Kent, I have seen Abell 15, at (2000) 06 27 01.9 -25 22 50 with my 20" f/5.0 reflector. I have a visual magnitude for the nebula of 15.8 and a size of 34"....
Kent Wallace
kwwallace@...
Feb 8, 2008 3:13 pm
20979
In a message dated 2/8/2008 6:03:09 AM Pacific Standard Time, kent@... ... We nailed this one a few years back on clear, cold West Texas night not to far...
icgalaxies@...
Feb 8, 2008 4:43 pm
20980
Thanks, Kent. Yes, I was using my 25" f/5 with an OIII at 200x. I didn't think to try a UHC but will revisit it next time. Thanks for the tip. Kent Blackwell ...
Hello Everyone, I just started the Astro League's double star Club, and I'm having a lot of trouble using an ETX90 to see tight double stars like Rigel--in ...
Rigel 0.18 & 6.68 9.5"arc is not "tight". I used to own a 3-inch f/16 refractor that could show B easily, in very good seeing. According to my unequal doubles...
Isn't the problem with the companion to Rigel is simply the large delta-mag rather than separation? I wouldn't consider it to be "tight", but just a matter of...
Brian Skiff
bas@...
Feb 8, 2008 7:19 pm
20984
Well I have to admit the transparency those two nights I tried was pretty awful, but after a solid month of overcast or very windy skies I had to try. The air...
Jon, On the latest night's observing to which you refer, what was your estimate of the seeing (either Antoniadi or whatever seeing scale you are accustomed to...
... That is the purpose of my unequal doubles algorithm, it takes into consideration Delta m (the mag diff of the primary & comites), the seeing state based on...
Although not easy I split Rigel with a little William 66SD, a telescope that test well (about 1/4-wave) and is very inexpensive. Of course, refractors are at...
Easily class III conditions the other night. I tried a darker site last night with the ETX, and again could not get Rigel to show me the companion. Really...
The only refractor I have is a PST--not good for night use. ;) I'll see how my reflectors do tonight, but you have me thinking if I should cross over to the...
I have an old notebook from a long since deceased double star observer with observations made with a 50mm achromatic refractor with a record of seeing Rigel B...
Brian and other, Some time ago you ask southern observers for an observation of this carbon star, with the suspicion that this is a double star of perhaps 1" -...
Magda Streicher
magda@...
Feb 10, 2008 3:41 pm
20992
I had a look at Rigel this evening at dusk from Anderson Mesa. Without waiting for the telescope to cool down, the companion was straightforward to see at 95x...
Brian Skiff
bas@...
Feb 13, 2008 2:50 am
20993
Upon reading of Brian's observation, Tom Polakis and I immediately turned my 92mm Stowaway refractor toward Rigel. The seeing here in Tempe was nothing...
Among the interesting things I noticed last night while looking up the star in the literature and databases is that this is a faint naked-eye star (if it were...
Brian Skiff
bas@...
Feb 13, 2008 10:26 pm
20995
... I show the 70mm Pronto at a focal length of 480mm, and the 92mm Stowaway at 604mm (actual f6.6). Where is the 450mm again? -Christopher...
... Except that my 1992 vintage one is 450mm. Nagler made them somewhat longer (I think) later because people complained about the color and it ws probably...
Brian Skiff
bas@...
Feb 13, 2008 10:58 pm
20997
Don't think this article has been mentioned on the list. A “new” star appeared in the constellation of Orion in late 2003 when the young pre-main sequence...
... This is a good summary. The main image at the URL mentioned made the cover of the January 2008 issue of the 'Astronomical Journal'. The full paper cited...
Brian Skiff
bas@...
Feb 14, 2008 5:11 am
20999
I came across a reference of Gyulbudaghian 98-171 in O'Meara's *Hidden Treasures* book (in the chapter about NGC 2163) a little while ago and so far can't find...
... This appears to be the reflection object centered near 21 03 56 +50 14.9 (J2000). It lies at the eastern edge of a broad dark region. Among the SIMBAD...
Brian Skiff
bas@...
Feb 14, 2008 6:08 am
21001
With the first clear skies in ages here on southern Vancouver Island I threw a couple of scopes out to see what doubles I could see. The transparency was bad...
I have never had a problem splitting Rigel in reasonable seeing at around 60 or above with a 50 year old 3 inch f 13.3 brass and British Broadhurst and...
