| Ilario Melandri | ||||
| Star:
Alpha Piscium
Date & Time: 22/9/2003 Seeing: 6 <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)>. Transparency: --- <1 worst - 10 best> Location of site: San Romualdo, Italy Site classification: Suburban-rural Conditions: Temperature 18º C Sky darkness: 4.5 <Limiting magnitude> Telescope: 150mm (6”) f/15 refractor Eyepieces: 16mm Plössl Magnification: 140x |
|
|||
| Eddy O'connor | ||||
| Star:
Alpha Piscium
Date & Time: Wednesday, September 24th 2003 10.30-11.30 p.m local; UT +10 Seeing: 5 <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)>. Transparency: 9 <1 worst - 10 best> Location of site: Terara, New South Wales, Australia, Long.150.38 ; Lat - 34.52. Site classification: Conditions: Temp 12° No Moon Sky darkness: <Limiting magnitude> Telescope: 8" F9 Newtonian Eyepieces: 16mm and 12mm Ortho. Magnification: Harshaw Scale: 1 <1-5, 1 best> |
Mag.
4.1/5.2; Sep. 1.8". I was stretched to split this fine pair tonight and
the high power eyepiece reduced them to washed out daubs of Yellowish and
Greenish watercolours. One to return to.
|
|||
| Steve Bodin | ||||
| Star:
Alpha Piscium
Date & Time: 28 Sept 2003 11:30pm to 2 am Seeing: 7->5 <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)>. Transparency: fair Location of site: Silverdale WA, USA 47N 123W Site classification: suburb-rural Conditions: temp 50-55F, dry Sky darkness: 5.6 <Limiting magnitude> Telescope: Celestron C8 Eyepieces: Video camera DX8263SL at prime focus and 3x Magnification: app. 333x and 1000x |
Finally,
the last and also the first of Pisces. One of the finest close, bright
pairs in the sky. Nice white and blue pair listed as A0p and A3m spectral
types. Also a mover, the Sixth Orbit Catalog has them at 1.804 sec at 269.04
deg PA this month. Measured at 1.86 sec at
269.0 deg PA.
|
|||
| PJ Anway | ||||
| Star:
Alpha Piscium
Date & Time: Sept. 30, 2003, 11pm EDT (0300 UT) Seeing: 6 <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)>. Transparency: <1 worst - 10 best> Location of site: Munising Michigan USA Site classification: Rural Sky darkness: 6.0 <Limiting magnitude> Sky condition: clear - moon set Temperature: 42º F (5º C) Telescope: Zeiss 80mm/1200mm f/15 Eyepieces: Zeiss 6mm, 8mm, 10mm, 12.5mm, 25mm orthos Magnification: 200x |
Alrisha, located at the
intersection of the tail-fins of Pisces, is easily seen with the naked
eye at 4th magnitude. Olcott states that it is "difficult for a 3 inch
telescope"; I found it moderately challenging in my 80mm at 200X. At this
power in a 3 inch, the colors are too dim to detect, but using his 5.9
inch refractor, Smyth saw " a splendid object" of "pale green and blue".
Others have seen a variety of colors and Crossley came to the conclusion
that "both stars probably vary in colour and brightness".
|
|||
| Luis Balanzino | ||||
| Star:
Alpha Piscium
Date & Time: October 2, 2003, 21h to 22h UT Seeing: 7 <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)>. Transparency: 6 <1 worst - 10 best> Location of site: Göteborg, Sweden 57°43' N, 11°58' E Site classification: Urban area with considerable light pollution Moon: in Sagittarius, not visible Sky darkness: 4 <Limiting magnitude> Temperature: 10º C Telescope: Meade ETX-90 Maksutov (90mm f/13.8) on photo tripod Eyepieces: 26mm Meade and 12,5mm TAL Plossl, 2x TAL Barlow Magnification: 48x, 100x, 200x |
Finishing this night with
the most famous double in Pisces, Alrischa or Alpha, but not precisely
easy to split in my scope. At 48x, no signs of duplicity at all, barely
at 100x and the split is possible only at 200x. Beautiful, the stars are
almost in contact. The New
Handbook of the Heavens says "Difficult with 7.5 cm, noticeable color contrast" but I see both components white or slightly yellowish.
|
|||
| Tim Leese | ||||
| Star:
Alpha Piscium
Date & Time: 17 October 2003, 21:30UT Seeing: 6 <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)>. Transparency: <1 worst - 10 best> Location of site: Northwich, Cheshire. UK (53° 15' N -2º 33' W) Site classification: Suburban Conditions: Sky darkness: 4.2 (Umi) <Limiting magnitude> Telescope: 200mm f/6 Newtonian reflector Mount: Vixen GP Eyepieces: 18mm, 9mm, 6mm Orthoscopics- 12.5mm Celestron MicroGuide ( CMG ) Magnification: X67, X133, X200, (CMG X96) |
9mm
Or-----------I could just about make out some elongation or a figure of
eight using this eyepiece. The seeing wouldn't permit any detail
of this dazzling star system.
6mm
Or----------A definite split in the somewhat unsteady seeing conditions.
Two whitish stars could be seen in the occasional moments of steady air.
Even with an apodising screen in place, splitting this pair was difficult
for most of the time. Patience was required to catch any moments of steady
air confirming a definite split. One to try for under steadier conditions.
|
|||
| Bill Green | ||||
| Star:
Alpha Piscium
Date & Time: 19 October 2003 01:00 to 03:00 UTC Seeing: 7 to 8 <Pickering scale>. Transparency: <1 worst - 10 best> Location of site: Catawba, VA U.S.A 37° 16' N 79º 57' W Site classification: Rural Conditions: 0% cloud cover, excellent transparency, light surface breeze Sky darkness: 4.0 <Limiting magnitude> Temperature: Telescope: TV76 f/6.3 APO Refractor Mount: TV Telepod Eyepieces: Nagler type 6 (11, 7, 5, 3.5. 2.5MM) Magnification: |
This star may become my gauge of night-to-night seeing.
At 1.8" separation it is approaching the theoretical limit of the TV76
(1.5" in prefect seeing). I first approached the pair at 96x, which
gave only a slight hint of elongation. Had I not
known this was a double and was only casually scanning at 96X I would have passed this right by. I then went directly to 196X which obviously revealed a double. As the seeing changed it went from being a single star image, to a single star with a side "bulge", to a clean split with complete black between. I detected no color indications. It was almost hypnotic to watch this pair float lazily along, making the change from "single star" to clean double, then back again. It reminded me of images I have seen of cells or ameba splitting :-) |
|||
