Olympic doubles. 38 Lyncis

Doubles to celebrate the Winter Olympics 2002
Salt Lake City, USA
38 Lyncis

Bob Hogeveen

n.b.hogeveen@hetnet.nl

Star: 38 Lyncis
Date & Time: February 09 - 2002, 21.00 - 22.00
Seeing: ~ 5 <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)>
Location of site: Annen, The Netherlands
(53 N, 6 E)
Site classification: Village-backyard
Sky darkness: 4.5 <Limiting magnitude>
Temperature: 10° C
Conditions: Thin clouds now and then, strong winds
Telescope: Intes MK67
Eyepieces: 30mm Ulima, 15mm LV
Magnification: 60x, 120x

Star: 38 Lyncis
Date & Time: Feb. 14, 2002
Seeing: 6/7->8 <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)>
Location of site: Annen, The Netherlands (53 N, 6 E)
Site classification: Village-backyard
Sky darkness: 5 <Limiting magnitude>
Telescope: Celestron C11 on Losmandy G11.
Eyepieces: 30mm Ultima, 15mm LV
Magnification: 93x, 187x

38 Lyncis was chosen to carry the flag into the arena. This team was holding the flag with dignity and positioned itself in a very comfortable location high in the southern sky. It was easily found with the 10x50 finder. The finder of the MK67 gives a bright and sharp image (in most of the field) but has a restricted field of view. I would have preferred a 7x or 8x finder. Besides that the eyepiece of the finder has a too short eye-relief and I cannot oversee the whole field.

At 60x team 38 Lyn could not be split... But should I expect that with this large magnitude difference, this small distance and this turbulent sky? Putting in the 15mm LV got me 120x, and there it was. What a split, I didn't realize that 2.7" was so large at this magnification.

Did I put in my 7mm LV instead? While writing this report I start to doubt...
But no, that cannot be, I had the EP's in their proper places in my case, and I didn't touch the 7mm...

So the split was easy at 120x, but the image was very unsteady. Here I noticed the bad seeing, the star-image of the brighter star was mostly smeared out like I'm used to with bad seeing in my larger scopes. Checking out the DI afterwards I think it was not a bad performance of my new little observing companion. The DI is 93.91, and I'm fairly confident that the MK67 will take me beyond that value when the sky permits higher magnifications and more severe tests.

The captain of team 38 Lyncis wore a shining white suit this evening, how handsome! His companion, keeping somewhat shy to the background, looked a bit dingy, his (or hers? I couldn't make that out on this distance) suit needed a wash urgently. It had a dirty yellowish color. Nevertheless I gave this team a favourable judgement: 2 on the famous scale of the famous reporter R.H. from K. in the U.S.A.

A revisit of this pair. I was in the neighbourhood anyway...
The C11 confirmes the findings of the MK-67 earlier this week. The primary is a bright white star and the secondary shows a dirty looking yellow. The pair is easy to split, best view was @ 187x. Rating 2.

Steve Bodin				sdbodin@hotmail.com
Star: 38 Lyncis Date & Time: 13 Feb 2002, 12:30 to 01:30 local Seeing: 6-7 <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)> Transparency: Intermittent high cirrus Location of site: Silverdale Wa, USA 47ºN, 123ºW Site classification: Suburban Sky darkness: 5.7 <Limiting magnitude> Telescope: Celestron 8 SCT Eyepiece: 24 Koenig, 19 televue, 3x barlow, PC23 videocamera Magnification: 250x, 315x				Cataloged as STF1334. Close, unequal brightness double. The star seemed easier than the DI of 93.91 would suggest. Both components looked blue white to me. Measurements: 2.79 sec, PA 227 deg.