95 Herculis

[DarkerSky]

A gorgeous pairing. The primary is a bright white with a hint of blue, while the secondary is a delicate topaz yellow. Separation 6.3". PA estimated at 260 degrees +/-2. Official is 258 degrees. This pair is a long-term binary with orbital period of 11,000yrs+. Not going to see much movement in it during our lifetimes! Distance 432 light years.

Sketch 12" x124 on 19 June 2011

A - Mag 4.9

B - Mag 5.2

[lunator]

Very nice sketch Seb

[Nexus 6]

Neat Seb, kind of Albireo like

[Mark at Beaufort]

Seb a very nice sketch. I recently toured the doubles in Hercules and I did appreciate this particular double.

Mark

[petek314]

Nice to see your sketch. I observed 95 Herculis on 24th May and thought it was a very nice sight with yellow and blue pair. My 26mm eyepiece just splits the pair at 39x. I am trying to image double stars and then use a program called Reduc which estimates PA and seperation from the image. I haven't had the opportunity for 95 Herculis yet but hope to do so soon.

Pete

[asteria]

Great sketch. Thanks for sharing this. I was able to view this pair last night in good conditions and they took magnification well.

[4lefts]

Lovely sketch. Did you use coloured pencil or colourise on the computer?

btw - what's PA?

thanks

[DarkerSky]

Lovely sketch. Did you use coloured pencil or colourise on the computer?

btw - what's PA?

thanks

Yes, I did apply colour on the computer just using a basic MSPaint program. I have a set of colour pencils too. What I've started doing once I have sketched star positions with standard graphite pencils is try and color match one of my coloured pencils to the colour shade I'm seeing in the eyepiece. I'll test the colours out on a sheet of paper until I get a match. That then gives me a visual reference for when I get to the computer, rather than just trying to do it purely from memory.

PA is Position Angle. It refers to the relative position through 360 degrees of the secondary (normally fainter) star of a double system in relation to the primary (brighter star). Once you've worked out exactly where North is in the eyepiece you can use a basic measuring circle or adapted protractor to make a PA reading.

[4lefts]

thanks! so, to use colour when sketching, does that mean you need a white light? (shock! horror!)

[DarkerSky]

Yes, I do use dim white light to get the colour match. A bit OT but I've personally never found much benefit sketching in red light, even using just plain graphites. Much happier sketching by dim white light using my non-observing eye.