Splitting Sirius?

[Manok101]

I was wondering if my 10" was capable of splitting Sirius and what I would see when I did?

[Bodkin]

Theoretically you should be able to do it, but it would be very difficult. The main problem is seeing the rather faint Sirius B next to the very bright Sirius A. A very big apo-refractor is probably the instrument of choice. However, give it a go if the astronomical seeing is excellent as you never know.

I have never managed it myself and would be interested to hear of anyone else's success.

[Chris H]

I can't do it with my 10" Dob Sirius is just too bright, and from where I live, too low.

[John]

Sirius B was spotted by one of our members at last years SGL star party. He was using a specialised planetary maksutov-cassegrain of 10" aperture made by Orion Optics. It produced very tight star images with the absolute minimum of light scatter / flare. The challenge with newtonians is that the secondary and it's supports produce a fair amount of scatter and with such a bright object as Sirius A this masks the much, much dimmer Sirius B. I've tried a few times with a good 6" refractor using an eyepiece with an occulting bar but with no success.

It's a very tough challenge but not impossible if you can optimise your views through spot on collimation and mimising of light scatter.

[Damo636]

I have tried this on a number of occasions but with no success.

[Tinker1947]

Try splitting Amaak, my 10" with a 9mm eye piece shows a smaller pretty blue star, next to the big bad orange one. I will try Sirius and report back...

[jabeoo1]

Visually they are currently, as viewed from earth about as far apart as they get from one another.  I will be trying this at some point as they will only appear to drift closer again over the next 5- 10 years, making the task even more difficult.  

Will partially masking the aperture of a large obstructed reflector help reduce the effect of the airy rings & increase the chances of picking off the companion ?