Star: Ommixcron Persei
Date & Time: 25 Nov 2002, 9pm to 10 pm local
Seeing: 4-5 <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)>
Transparency:  fair
Location: Silverdale WA USA, 47N, 123W
Site classification: Suburb-rural
Sky darkness: 5.5 <Limiting magnitude>
Conditions: 32 deg F, passing high clouds, dew, fog by 10pm
Telescope: Celestron C8
Eyepieces: none
Magnification: App. 2000x
Additional: Video camera PC164C at 6x 
 

Tried the Perseus list again with 2 straight days of clear weather. The seeing was poor but usable. It was that 'Fast' seeing. the one where the stars twinkle rapidly and swiftly resolve or smear all within a second. The best seeing is the 'Slow' seeing where moments of diffraction limited sights are long and easy to see through. but this type of seeing is not usual in the winter out here. Of course, the worst seeing is the 'Bloated' type, where all the stars are twice their normal size. This seeing is common in the winter here.
 
Tried this star 4 time now with no success. But tonight, the seeing allowed some diffraction limited seeing through, but only for very brief moments. Too fast for the human eye but not for the video camera. This surprised me as I was also able to easily split 36 And, epsilon Ari, elongate 66 Psc, and the 'coup de ville', elongate gamma And BC. Out of 395 video frames, each 1/30 of a second, I found 39 that seemed to show the primary disk. These I stacked and the secondary popped out at the desired position. The WDS lists the secondary magnitude as 6.7 which is easier than the 8.4 listed in our project notes.  Also noted was the catalog number, BU 535. Measurements: separation 0.982 sec at 25.2 deg PA.
 
 

 

(simalation performed with (C) Aberrator, by Rafa Barberá)