| Mary Flanagan | ||||
| Star: Beta Capricorni
Date & Time: 03 Dec 2000 00:48 UTC Seeing: 6 <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)> Transparency: 6 <10-Best> Temperature: Other Conditions: Location of Site: Apple Valley MN, USA 93º 14' 25" W; 44º 45' 17" N Site Classification: Suburban Sky darkness: 3 <Limiting magnitude> Binoculars: Pentax 7 x 50 binoculars |
Have never been able to split this one in binos, even
the 10 x 50s, and tonight was no exception. A tripod would help here, I
suspect, as even the lighter 7 x 50s weren't steady enough to catch the
fainter secondary. It was pretty low, as well, and there was some scintillation.
It finally cleared up a bit yesterday. Of course, what I really wanted to do was take the new light bucket out, but there is still quite a bit of snow in the yard. Snowmelt on that beautiful finish, I was thinking. Water in the DSCs. I settled for taking the 7 x 50 binos out for a quick look at a few of the doubles on the list. Ambience: There was a waxing crescent moon and more haze than I'd expected. To add insult to injury, the annual neighborly "We have more Christmas lights than you do" competition is in full swing, and it was right in my face, since I was doing my observing from the driveway in order to use my elbows and the car roof as a sort of temporary bino-mount. Then, too, the temperature was headed rapidly for the teens, so I didn't really last too long. It's been so long since I've seen anything but clouds that I actually
mistook Venus for an oncoming helicopter! Nice to see her again. The evening
had a nice finish a little later when I looked out a north-facing window
and saw a blue-white meteor at least as bright as Sirius, streaking across
the low northern sky from east to west.
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