Ambiance: A warm, humid and dusty night. The grass field adjacent to the observing site had been cut and gathered in windrows to cure. The almost full moon and a bloated Mars made their way across the southern sky in echelon.  A coyote howled. I hear that often at the farm.  Its always just one. No answer. Very sad when you think about it. Except for a passing train about a mile away it was very quiet. Probably too hot and humid for people to be up and about. 

Comments:  A beautiful view, though difficult owing to the brilliance of Vega.  (To glimpse C, I had to use an occulting bar in a 25mm Ortho to cut off the glare of Vega.)  There is a companion to C, but I could not detect it. 
This system is very dynamic as the history of measurements shows: 

AB 1836, 43" @ 138. 
AC 1864, 46.9" @ 299.  1881 shown. 
AD 1905, 125" @ 39.  1985 shown. 

In the WDS, star D is actually E while the undetected companion to C is labelled D. 

Recent measurements of IR radiation from Vega by IRAS have detected solid matter which could be protoplanetary material forming around the star. 
Rating:  5 
 

Star: Alpha Lyrae
Date & Time: 7/28/01 10:42 pm CDT
Seeing: 6 <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)>. 
Location of site: Killeen, TX, USA
Site classification: Suburban
Sky darkness: 3.5 <Limiting magnitude>
Telescope: Celestar 8" SCT
Eyepieces:  12.5 Microguide 
 

Revisited to remeasure PA. 181.4 (ave. of 5 meas.)

At this latitude there  is no true darkness in July. I set up at 22.30 local time, only just into nautical twilight. After a showery day in a west to north west airstream the sky was much more translucent than normal in a maritime air mass with just a few drifting clouds. Unusually as it got darker the summer milky way 
became very evident to the naked eye, particularly where it passes through Aquila Cygnus and Lacerta and the limiting magnitude in Ursa Minor was just better than 5. From my suburban site almost unbelievable. 

At 01.00  faint astronomical twilight could still be discerned  from NW through to NE. Sadly, the continuance of domestic bliss demanded that observing cease. I had become involved with DSO's during the last hour, which started with a particularly fine view of M 57.
 

I needed to observe this star for quite a while until the listed companion came into view though. With a higher magnification of X134 I could see the listed companion using direct vision but I thought I could see another very faint star at a PA of about 40-50 deg. 

Using averted vision the star kept popping in and out of view against the very bright glare of Vega. Not sure if this star is part of the system or not. 
 
 

Alpha Lyra, Vega
33 Data List    D = 62.8"  PA = 173º 
J. Ryan MG     D =  77.8" PA = 180º

When I got back to our home in Salamanca from the village I checked The Hipparcos and Tycho Catalogs and to my surprise they listed this pair for J2000 as D = 76.7 and PA = 182º so I was pleased with my quick measurements. However why the big change in 50+/- years. I then noted from the Hipparcos catalog that the proper motion of Vega compared to the secondary component is about 200 to 300 times greater which inferred that it had to be an optical double. I then got out my Burham Handbook and he explained therein that this pair is an optical double with the distance between them separating quite rapidly. However the nice thing was to find all this out just by making the measurement with the Microguide. 
 

Star: Alpha Lyrae
Date & Time: 22nd, July, 2001. 21:00 UT
Seeing: 7-8 <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)>
Transparency: 3-4 <0:worst -10:best >
Location of site: Quintueles, Gijón, Spain.  43º 32N, 5º 55W. Altitude: 20 m.
Site classification: Suburban
Sky darkness: 3.0 - 3.5 <Limiting magnitude> 
Temperature: about 15º C
Telescope: Zeiss Telementor
Eyepieces: 35mm, 10 and 5mm Baader-Planetarium Eudiascopic
Magnification: 24x, 84x, 168x
Harschaw Scale: 1 <From 1 to 5. 1 = Great, 5 = poor interest>
 

This year I've observed Vega with more attention and the
companion is clearly visible at 100x, making a wonderful contrast due to the big difference of magnitude (terrific, more than 9 magnitude difference).

Given the sky conditions while observing tonight, the secondary seems to come and go from time to time. I rate it as a 1 since it has always been one of my preferred stars and my reference to test any refractor on summer.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

I adjust Vega's coordinates on the T-mount and this cosmic beacon enters the 2+ degrees field of view at 24x. After centering the main component of Vega, the companion is easily observed, although due to the fact that in this
moment I haven't yet astronomical night, the view of the companion comes and goes. The split is, logically, a bit harder than the one from the 4" Vixen and averted vision helps a lot here. The trick is to observe just in opposite direction to Vega-B (with respect to Vega-A) but watching" Vega-B.

The difraction rings cause almost an hipnotic experience on me and the time goes by without noting it.
 

Ambience: Canada's Starfest was an excellent star-party with lousy weather. Rain or solid clouds were the norm for Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The only exception was Saturday afternoon  which, though windy, sported regular patches of clear sky in the clouds and Saturday evening which produced a large hole directly overhead for about an hour and a half. With over 900 amateurs starving for some viewing, quite a bit of sun observing was done  on Saturday. I observed with my 100mm for quite a while and tried my hand at imaging through the eyepiece with a hand-held Coolpix 800 digital camera.

The sun was a bit subdued, but I managed to image a few sunspots. I also got a chance to view through both a "Daystar" and a "Coronado AS1-90" H-alpha filters on other people's scopes and was able to see several small flares - a real treat.

Among the many fine talks was one that I believe will  particularly appeal to this group. It was entitled "Double Stars at the Limits of Perception" by Jerry Spevak (a Canadian amateur).