Astronomy journal, star atlas, reference book, and binoculars.
A Cygni 100 Bow Shock Star

A Cygni 100 Bow Shock Star

Work on the Cygni 100 catalog is underway, complete with its own numbering system. An unexpected challenge in writing the catalog, however, is the seemingly endless amount of information found while looking up details for each double star. Sort of a nice problem to...

The Wings of the Goose

The Wings of the Goose

The original Cygni 100 list created last summer (2022) did not include Mu1 Cygni because of the magnitude difference between the A and D components. A parameter for the first list was to limit the difference to less than 2x because a significant magnitude difference...

The Cygni 100

The Cygni 100

Last summer (2022) a Cloudy Nights friend had a conversation with me about the relative merits of telescopes versus binoculars for observing double stars, binocular double stars by that time having become something of a passion of mine. 😉My friend pointed out that...

Really Old Stars

Really Old Stars

I have the book Searching for the Oldest Stars: Ancient Relics from the Early Universe written by professional astronomer Anna Frebel checked out from the library, and wondered if it might be possible to view an ancient star with binoculars from my yard. To my...

My Binocular Double Star Manifesto

My Binocular Double Star Manifesto

Over the past several years my observing has centered around viewing double stars with binoculars, which is not a common practice among astronomy hobbyists. Telescopes are widely preferred for these objects. The classic image is an observer with a refractor resolving...

Stephenson 1 Star Cluster

Stephenson 1 Star Cluster

Stephenson 1 is a star cluster in the constellation Lyra. It is about 1200 light years from our solar system and more or less centered on Delta 2 Lyrae, which ironically has been found not to be a cluster member. Nearby Delta 1 Lyrae is a 70% probable member. Also...

A Late, Late Spring Galaxy Night

A Late, Late Spring Galaxy Night

Sunday and Monday nights (18 and 19 June 2023), just days before the summer solstice (21 June), were some of the best skies we have had here in months, following rain Saturday night and a temporary respite from Canada wildfire smoke. I had a Sunday evening meeting so...

Venus and the Beehive

Venus and the Beehive

I observed at Lewis Young Park in Louisburg, Kansas Tuesday evening, June 13, 2023 with ASKC friend Bill Barlow, who motivated me to get to a darker site for the first time in months. I had qualms about the sky conditions, but Bill (a retired meteorologist) said it...

Oberwerk 120XL-SD First Light

Oberwerk 120XL-SD First Light

A long anticipated arrival has occurred, and the Oberwerk 120XL-SD binocular telescope has returned to my Team BT, which now includes the full Oberwerk XL line-up (70XL-ED, 82XL-SD, 100XL-SD, 120XL-SD, and 127XL-SD). I evaluated the proto-type 120XL-SD several months...

Binary Bounty in Boötes

Binary Bounty in Boötes

Following up on a conversation about SHY double stars in the Cloudy Nights binocular forum, I decided to observe the double star STTA 122, which includes the "E" component of SHY 247, a comoving stellar companion to what is arguably the most famous of all double stars...