Starting at the North Pole

Date: 27 September 2008
Time: 3:15 - 5:30 UT
Telescope: 13cm refractor
Mount: home-made alt-az
Diagonal: 1.25-inch 90-degree erect-image prism
Magnifications: 43x, 80x, 111x, 302x
NELM: 6.5
Seeing: very poor ('3' on Pickering Scale) - at session end
Temperature: +50 F (+10 C) - at session end

Using the Millennium Atlas as my guide I sought out objects within about 3-degrees of the north celestial pole.

The star diagonal used is not of the highest quality, but for an erect-image diagonal it is of reasonable quality. This diagonal was used in order to more easily match the eyepiece view with the detailed atlas charts.

My old alt-az mount was used under the assumption that it would make it easier to navigate around the celestial pole -- easier than using an equatorial mount. At a later date I'll determine whether or not that assumption reflects accurately on reality.

The seeing and temperature were not recorded until the end of the session. A high magnification (302x in this instance) was necessary in order to obtain an accurate value for the astronomical seeing. For all other observations the maximum magnification used was 111x.

Five double stars were 'split' on this evening. Their rough coordinates are given below:

RA 02h 35m, Dec +89.3 degrees (Polaris, Alpha Ursae Majoris) very bright primary with much fainter secondary

RA 08h 20m, Dec +87.25 easily split at all magnifications, not particularly bright

RA 12h 00m, Dec +87.0 a nice double, best at about 80x

RA 12h 30m, Dec +88.7 a close, unequal double, cleanly split at 80x

RA 18h 40m, Dec +88.3 an unequal, easily split double (140 lightyears distant)

Other objects and double stars were looked for, but were either not positively seen or not positively split.