2024-09-07

10:00AM

This hobby, like many others, always has a few small annoyances which over time can grind on the experience. I've noticed that my personality seems to latch on to any small annoyance and let it eat at me sometimes to the extent where I no longer want to pursue the hobby even though I may love it. I think this is what drives me to continually streamline the experience.

One such recent annoyance has been with the storage and ease-of-access of my art supplies while in the field. I started by storing them in a Grit-It elastic band storage board. This worked, but it was one more thing that I had to remember to bring out to the field with me. And, on occasion, while in the dark I would loose something in the grass while slipping a tool in or out of the elastic bands.

I then moved on to strapping most of my tools together in a rubber band, and stringing it to my vest. That way if the bundle fell out of my vest pocket, the string would keep it fixed to me and I would not loose anything. This also worked, but I found it difficult to repeatedly get a tool in and out of the tightly bound bundle.

I've been meditating on a solution for the past few weeks when I found our old kitchen knife magnetic strip. The magnets are strong, and the size is just right to be affixed to one of the legs of my EQ-4 mount. I just had to find a way to magnetically attach all of the wooden tools to it.

The solution was to use some discarded small chain links. The chain has a good magnetic connection with the magnetic strip. I found that if I pried open one of the links I could crimp it to my wooden pencils and paint brushes. Since the strip has two magnets running its length at about 3" apart, I had to use two chain links per tool spaced the same distance apart.

../images/2024-09-07_ArtSupplies.jpg

This seems to work well. The magnet is strong enough to keep the items in place while moving the mount around. Time will tell if this solution creates any other annoyances though!

09:13PM

A suble cluster. Took a little bit to locate and detect it. No brighter stars in the FoV. 110x is a much better view, with AV many more stars appear in view. Seems to be more tightly grouped.

[1] NGC 6823 (ID)

[2] Open Cluster (ID)

[3] ../images/2024-09-07_NGC6823.jpg

09:31PM

Always a lovely double. I'm pleased with how the yellow color turned out in this one. I think it looks much better then my first attempt with β Cygni.

I tried to simplify my technique, to make it easier to accomplish in the dark (and with smaller stars). With this attempt, I simply made the star like I do all the others (push the pencil to the page and twist) and after applied the yellow pencil by rubbing it over the existing dot. This allowed the color to flare from the edges without much affecting the central white glow. The color still pops even though the 'base' of white charcoal isn't there. I was probably overthinking how to do this all along.

[1] γ Delphinus (ID)

[2] Star (Double) (ID)

[3] ../images/2024-09-07_GammaDel.jpg

09:51PM

Stunning open cluster, added as a favorite. The cluster wasn't particularly vibrant however what made it cool was that there was a multiple star and a double star clearly visible within the cluster.

The multiple star is easily seen in the sketch near the center. Apparently this is Struve 2816. The siblings were close in separation, with the sibling to the right just slightly further away.

The double star further to the north in the sketch is Struve 2819.

[1] IC 1396 (ID)

[2] Open Cluster (ID)

[3] ../images/2024-09-07_IC1396.jpg

10:16PM

This star was not on any list for me to view, however it was close enough to IC 1396 that it caught my eye in my field star atlas with its name 'Garnet Star'.

This was so beautiful, that I'm going to have to create a list of my personal favorites that aren't on a AL/RASC challenge list yet so it appears in my org-agenda for years to come.

'Garnet Star' is a great name for it. It might be one of the most vibrant stars I've seen; not so much for its brightness than for its size, depth of color, and halo. Truly worth visiting.

[1] μ Cephei, Herschel's Garnet Star (ID)

[2] Star (Variable) (ID)

[3] ../images/2024-09-07_MuCep.jpg