2026-04-14
- Condition: VG7
- Quality: 19.78 mpsas
- Location: Home, Spearfish: 44.49, -103.87
I had a lot of trouble finding my targets tonight. It was a combination of mis-placing my mount due to tree obstruction and the odd ways that you have to move GEM mounts with target’s close to polaris made it much harder to locate these.
9:21PM
- Target: Σ 1169, PKO 21
- Const: Camelopardalis
- RaDec: 08h16m +79.30
- Type: Star (Multiple)
- Scope: AT102ED
- Setting: 89x
Used Polaris as the anchor star for Σ 1169. Once I got in position, it was found pretty easily and evidently seen at 55x. This was the first time one of my double star targets was not listed in my field atlas though. I used HIP 39538 as a reference point to know where to look.
10:11PM
- Target: Σ 1075
- Const: Camelopardalis
- RaDec: 07h27m +62.59
- Type: Star (Multiple)
- Scope: AT102ED
- Setting: 55x
I really struggled to find Σ 1075, which is funny because between the two it was the one listed in my field atlas. Some of the trouble comes from the fact that I think it’s location was a little off in the field atlas. I also had trouble confirming it due to the separations listed for the siblings. I kept looking for about a 7.2” separation for B with a 224” separation for C and I saw nothing that appeared to fit this description.
I spent some time panning the area and decided that my sketch location was the closest I could deem to those specifications. I took a chance and sketched it with a low degree of confidence. I was pleased to find out that the star pattern matched what Stella Doppie shows. I got lucky!