Mu Librae

 
Steve Bodin 
Star: Mu Librae
Date & Time: 16 July 2003 10:30pm to midnight
Seeing: 5  <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)>. 
Transparency: good
Location of site: Silverdale WA, USA
47N 123W
Site classification: suburb-rural
Conditions: temp 55F, dry
Sky darkness: mag 4.0 due moon <Limiting magnitude> 
Telescope: Celestron C8
Eyepieces: not used
Additional: DX-8263SL video camera at 2x
Magnification: app. 666x		 Seen this one before, but never been easy due to the southern declination. Both appear blue-white with the companion noticably fainter. Measurement, poor as it is, 1.6 sec at 005 deg PA.
 



 

 
William L. Schart
Star: Mu Librae
Date & Time: July 29, 2003
Seeing: 7 <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)>
Transparency: --- <1 worst - 10 best>
Location of site: Killeen, TX
Site classification: Suburban
Sky darkness: 4 <Limiting magnitude>
Telescope: Celestron C8
Eyepieces: 25mm 
Magnification: 
 

 

 I then attempted to find mu. Mag 5, should be visible in the finder, right? Well, no sign there. Plan B, look up the coords, get close to the Dec via the somewhat crude analogue SC, and use the RA SC to offset from alpha. Pan around for likely candidates, a 1.9" separation should 
give some indication even in the 25mm EP. Again, so deal. Plan C, use Astroplanner to create an image of what the finder FOV should look like and try to match it. Still nothing. Plan D, by this time it was pretty low and in the finder, I could see some telephone wires. Tried to use 
these to orient to where this illusive star should be, and still it remains hidden. Realize that it would remain unobserved by me this night. Pack it in for the night. Decide that next time, I will have some detailed charts prepared as a backup for the problematic black box.
 

   
 

 

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