[Lvas] Virgo Diamond Notes

Mon Apr 6 16:33:10 PDT 2009

>

>LVAS all,

>

>Some selected information regarding my observation of the "Virgo Diamond" this past >Friday night.

> 
> For an experiment I wanted to try to locate and see the diamond with
> an approximate 50% moon. I was using my 10-inch f/4.5 equatorially
> mounted reflector telescope.
> 
> To locate this object it required the use of my manual setting
> circles. It was very difficult indeed. I am a humble backyard observer
> who is not interested in digital circles, cameras or anything else
> requiring a battery.

>

> I have an AC right ascension drive motor but seldom use it. The only 
> only batteries I use are in my very old Rigel Systems
> Starlite LED red light. I have two...one for a backup. 

>

>I use simple eyepieces. I have a set of older University Optics Konigs and two
> barlow's. One is a UO Klee 2.8x and the other is a short 3-element 2x
> Celestron. 
> 
> The moon reduced my contrast significantly, however I could still see all four
> stars of the diamond with difficulty. I could easily see the northern star  > magnitude 10.89 and the western most star at 12.1 mag. I almost thought 
>that I was looking at the wrong stars, as the two brighter stars were the only ones
> to show themselves at 190x. Low magnification just does not work on this object
> however, I must consider the brightness of the moon during this observation. 
> 
> I now believe this to be more of an observer's challenge and would
> consider it only a "jewel" in a digital image. 
> 
> I had extreme difficulty in seeing the southern most star at 13.7 magnitude and
> the eastern star at magnitude 13.45 under the relatively bright moon. The
> western and southern stars required averted vision and I could not hold
> them constantly. I could not see the fifth star. 
> 
> The stability and seeing was excellent and I found that when using 266x
> I could see the two fainter stars much easier as compared to the view at
> 190x, the latter being the magnification I used almost 16 years ago when
> I first observed this object. I am most anxious to observe this object
> again at the next new moon. The attached sketch was made using 266x.

>

>Best regards, Roger Ivester 
> 
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