Altair (Alpha Aquila)

 
Steve Bodin
Star: Altair (Alpha Aquila)
Date & Time: 3 Sep 2002, 9pm to midnight
Seeing: 6 <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)>
Transparency: 
Location: Silverdale WA, USA
47N,123W
Site classification: Suburban
Sky darkness: 5.7-6 <Limiting magnitude>
Telescope: Celestron C8
Imaging: PC164C video camera, 17 inch DOB
Eyepieces: 3x barlow, 19mm televue wide field
Magnification: 315x
: 		 Bright pure white beacon in a sea of milky way stars. The WDS lists only the two project companion, but I count 21 on my f3 image with the 17 inch Bigdog at least 6 of these were easy in the C8 at 315x, which just fit the B and C component in the field of view. The star at this magnification is an analog of the naked eye view with Altair flanked by Alshain and Tarazed. There seems to be a closer companion of 12.5 or 13th mag that is not listed in the WDS. I could not see it visually with the C8 due to the glare of Altair, but have imaged it twice at different magnifications and different days with the Bigdog.  The measured values are quit different from listed; has Altair moved that much? It is only 17 light years away and all that other stuff is probably background. Measurements from the 17 inch, AB 191.4 sec at 108.7 deg PA; AC 190.6 sec at 289.1 deg PA and the closer one I'll call Aa 34.5 sec at 95.9 deg PA.

Ambience: Clear and cool, Fall in the air, the weather guesser said cloudy and rain, but wrong again. Decided to start with the sky still darkening at 9pm local. Viewed for about an hour and the sky was still not dark! Turned around and the north was alive with aurora! This put a stop to star gazing as the sky became animated all the way to the zenith with rays, curtains and dancing light. At times, the brightness was so intense that I thought a shadow could be seen. All calmed by 11pm local and was over by midnight.

 

 
Patrick Thompson
Star: Altair (Alpha Aquila)
Date & Time: 4th Sep 2002, 21:15
Seeing: 6 <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)>
Transparency: 6 <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)>
Location: West Wickham, Kent, UK
51°23' N 0°0'E
Site classification: Suburban garden
Sky darkness: 3 <Limiting magnitude>
Moon: None
Telescope: 8" Meade LX-90 SCT f/10
Eyepieces: 18mm Televue Radian
13.8mm Meade SWA
12mm Meade Astrometric
8.8mm Meade UWA
Magnification: 115x, 145x, 170x ,230x
(280x ,370x ,425x ,575x with 2.5x Powermate
Harshaw Scale: 3  (1-5; 1 best)
 : 		 115x : Brilliant white primary overwhelming anything in the near vicinity. 4
faint stars relatively close put themselves forward as candidates for the B
and C components.

170x : Measured AB as 195.2" at 287 deg (single measure). At first sight
this seems wrong, but adjusting for RPM shows consistency with catalogue.

Considered two possibilities for C. Measured as 197.6" at 110 deg and 299.8"
at 112 deg (both single measures). Neither seems consistent with the
catalogue separation.

Ambience: Ambience, what ambience? Lots of traffic noise and more than usual
extraneous light from the neighbours. Oh for a country mansion in the middle
of nowhere.
 

 

 
PJ Anway
Star: Altair (Alpha Aquila)
Date & Time: 9/04/02 - 2:30 UT
Seeing: 7 <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)>
Transparency:  <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)>
Location: Munising MI USA
Site classification: Rural
Sky darkness: 6.0 <Limiting magnitude>
Conditions: 46°F 9°C, calm, clear, no moon
Telescope: Zeiss AS100mm/1000mm
Eyepieces: 30mm widescan
Magnification: 33x		 Altair is easy to find with its two family members - Alschain &Tarazed; bright and white! just 16 light-years away and closing, it isgetting brighter, a magnificent star, part of the summer triangle; I notedthe two 10th magnitude companions (colorless) seem to form a triangle with athird star (PA 35°) and surround Altair as if in formation with themothership. Just about 2.1° to the southwest is Struve 2562 - bumping thescope a little in that direction, I was able to get Altair and Struve 2562in the same field. Two 33-doubles for the price of one!

Ambience: September is usually the beginning of peak observing season for me. It runsthrough to the first snowfall, anywhere from mid November to late December.It's the peak for a number of reasons; "bug season" is over; nighttime (at46.23°N) is falling at a reasonable time finally; and my general schedule(work - family - vacation) is beginning to slow down in preparation for theannual winter hibernation.Yesterday was one of those pleasant late summer days that attract so many"snowbirds" to roost here for the summer months. Sunny, in the 70's, with aclean smell to the air. As evening fell with temperatures around 50°, I knewit would be a nice beginning to the "season" and the time to get my observing feet wet in the new project in Aquila.
 

 
Luis Balanzino
Star: Altair (Alpha Aquila)
Date & Time: Tue Sept 3, 2002, 21h to 23h UT 
Seeing: 6 <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)>
Transparency: 5 <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)>
Location: Göteborg, Sweden
57°43' N, 11°58' E 
Site classification: Suburban
Sky darkness: 4-5 <Limiting magnitude>
Temperature: 15º C 
Moon: None
Telescope: Russian TAL-1 equatorial reflector 110mm f/7.3 
Eyepieces: 25mm and 10mm TAL Super Plossl, 15mm TAL Kellner, 3x TAL Barlow 
Magnification: 32x, 54x, 80x, 97x, 161x, 240x
   		 I finish my observing session with the brightest star. I never seen Altair trough a telescope before and at 32x the vision is really nice: the star is pure white and contrasts nicely with the dark blue sky. Several faint stars can be seen in the same field, but two of them are situated closer and on opposite sides of Alpha. I believe these are the companions, optical surely. A third farther star is visible to the N. 
 
 

 

 
Mary Flanagan
Star: Altair (Alpha Aquila)
Date & Time: 11 Sep 2002; 9:30-11:30 CST 
Seeing: 6 <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)>
Transparency: 6 <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)>
Location: Apple Valley MN, USA
 93d 14m 25s W; 44d 45m 17s N
Site classification: Suburban
Sky darkness: 3 <Limiting magnitude>
Telescope: 12.5" f/5 Starmaster Dob
Eyepieces: TV Plossls, 32mm, 15mm
Magnification: 		 There are several faint stars around Altair; I had to make a diagram to sort 
them out. The B and C components are tiny and showed no color. Altair itself, 
of course, is a beauty, blazing blue-white even before full dark.
 
 

 

 
Luis Argüelles
Star: Altair (Alpha Aquila)
Date & Time: 13th, September, 2002, 21:30-00:00 UT
Seeing: 6-7 <1-10 Scale (10 best)>
Transparency: 6->2 <1-10 Scale (10 best)>
Location: Sena de Luna, Spain
1200 m. altitude
~42º58' N, 05°50' W 
Site classification: Rural
Sky darkness: 3.5->5 <Limiting magnitude>
Moon: Crescent.
Telescope: Takahashi FS-102
Temperature: 18º->13º C 
Mount: Vixen GP+SS2K
Eyepieces: 35mm, 20mm, 5mm Baader Eudiacopics
Magnification: 23x, 41x, 164x
Harshaw Scale: 1 (1-5; 1 best)
   		 This is the first star observed from the Aquila project in my observing session, because I usually use Altair as a reference star for aligning the Skysensor 2000 astrocomputer (my “September” triangle for aligning is Vega, Altair and Mirfak in Perseus). As usually, the primary is a complete show by itself. Second and third coponents are easilly observed at 23x. I love this star.

Really hard to be inmersed in a better ambience. Lovely people having the annual Meeting of the Spirit of 33. The Observing Deck is full of telescopes and binoculars. If all continues this way, next year we will be forced to use also Observing deck #2.
 
 

 

 
Tim Leese
Star: Altair (Alpha Aquila)
Date & Time: 21 September 2002, 20:00 UT
Seeing: 5-6 <1-10 Scale (10 best)>
Transparency:  <1-10 Scale (10 best)>
Location: Northwich, Cheshire. UK.
(53° 15' N -2º 33' W).
Site classification: Suburban
Conditions: Clear night but lots of 
moisture in the air. Milky Way, only
just visible in Cygnus.
Sky darkness: 4.3 (UMi)  <Limiting magnitude>
Telescope: 200mm f/6 Newtonian reflector
Mount: Vixen GP
Eyepieces: 18mm, 9mm, 6mm  Orthoscopics,  CMG + Barlow lens.
Magnification: X67, X133, X200, X324 
 		 This is another fabulous star to observe and wonder at it's brightness.
9mm Or --- A white star with perhaps a small amount of yellow, on 
this occasion.  I could clearly see the preceding companion but 
couldn't decide which of the following stars was the listed companion.
The brightest and most obvious choice wasn't located at the specified 
position.  Taking Altair out of the view I could see a very faint 
star at the listed position but could only glimpse it using averted 
vision. Another observation needed, without a full Moon perhaps.

Date and time: 12 October 2002, 19:00 UT. 
Observations:
9mm Or---- Altair, through this eyepiece looks glorious, pure white 
in colour on this night.  Without a full moon as hindrance though, I 
could easily see the preceding companion. The following companion 
proved more difficult if it was the fainter of the two suspects I had 
seen in September. Averted vision was needed to see the fainter 
star.   I am still not sure which star is the listed ( 247sec in 
100degrees PA )  companion.
 
Ambience:- ( last night ) 
Autumn is fast overtaking us here in the UK.  The leaves on the trees 
in our garden are still tenaciously hanging on, until the first 
frosts send them to their ultimate demise. The night is very damp and 
moisture condenses out on all parts of the telescope. A typically 
damp autumn night for this area of the UK. 
 
 
 
William L. Schart 
Star: Altair (Alpha Aquila)
Date & Time: 29, October, 2002
8:30 - 9:30 pm CST
Seeing: 8 <1-10 Scale (10 best)>
Transparency:  <1-10 Scale (10 best)>
Location: Killeen, TX, USA, 
Site classification: Suburban
Conditions: No moon 
Sky darkness: 4 <Limiting magnitude>
Telescope: Meade ETX-60
Eyepieces: 25mm, 9mm
Magnification: 14x, 39x
 		 I examined this star for some time. I couldn’t really say if what I saw was a companion or not. There was a faint star, almost at my limits for this scope, to the lower left as viewed in the EP and it seemed to be in the ball park for separation. I later tried to recreate the view as  best I could in Xephem and I think what I saw was GSC-1058-2895, which at mag 8.6, is a bit brighter than either of the 2 listed companions. If so, than probably the companions are too dim to see with this scope.
 
Not much ambience to report. Neither of my 2 animals decided to accompany me tonight. I am sure there was some shooting going on at Ft. Hood, but to tell the truth, this has become just normal background noise, unless they are doing some heavy artillery close-by. One plane flew overhead as it turned on final for Killeen Municipal Airport.
   
 

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