Some Gemini and Orion Doubles

[philj]

A clear few hours this evening, very damp, seeing about 2.5 -3 not the best mainly due to high thin cloud, damp and high level turbulence.

Using the Meade 127 ED Triplet in the observatory linked to Skymap Pro11 I went on the hunt for some obscure doubles in Gemini and Orion and a couple of Orion multiples

STF 830 Gemini

2 very similar mag components (8 and 8.5) at a nice easy 12 arcsecs separation. The primary component looked yellow but I couldn’t really discern any colour contrasts in the secondary.

STF 889 Gemini

An obvious orange 7 mag primary with a yellow 9.5 mag secondary. An easy separation of 21 arcsecs. Again the colour difference was not easy to discern, atmospheric conditions maybe preventing this tonight.

STF897

8 and 8.5 with 19 sepeartion – unremarkable

20 Gemini (STF924)

A lovely yellow and blue almost equal mag pair at a comfortable 20 arcsecs separation. Mags according to the book at 6.3 and 6.9.

Nu Gemini

Binopair. The scope view at 50 mag was massive, a bright yellow 4.2 mag primary with a fainter orange 11.7 secondary at a really long 112” separation. A lovely sight.

15 Gemini

Just slightly off the FOV of Nu Gemini An obvious colour contrast of white / blue with mags of 6.6 and 8. The big 21.7 arcsec separation makes this a nice comfortable pair to split.

Epsilon Gemini

White and Blue at mags 3 and 9 with a big 110 arcsecond separation. A good looking pair in a nice background

STF 761 & STF 762 Sigma Orionis

These are an interesting grouping forming what appears to be a triangle. An unassociated mag 6ish star forms the head of a triangle with the 2 stars as the base about 2 – 300 arcsecs away. One of the base stars is 761 at 8 and 8.5 mag with an estimated 60 arcsecs split.

Halfway between the head star and 761 lies a multiple system STF 762 (Sygma Orionis) lying somewhat parallel to the base as A, B, C, D and E.

The brightest A-B are a striking 4 and 6 mag at a separation of 0.2, now this took some mag to split and had me squinting but stretching it with 200x I made out some dark sky between them at times of steady seeing.

Now the C component is 11.4 arcsecs away and at a mag of 10.3 shows a nice brightness contrast to the other members.

The 7.5 mag D component lies 12.9 arcescs away from AB and the E component at 6.5 mag lies 42.6 arcsecs away from AB.

All main components form a staggered line and together with 761 makes for an interesting field of view.

Alnitak STF 744

A very nice Blue White 1.9 mag primary component with a close mag 4 secondary at 9.9 arcsecs separation. These spilt quite easily with 100x. A third component at 2.4 mag lies quite a way off at 57.6. Could not discern colours in second and third components

STF 757

Now for a test of conditions, scope and eye. This is a triple but the primary is split by a 1.6 arcsecond gap but the 8 and 8.5 mag difference make splitting these a little simpler than if the secondary were faint. The 3rd component is a similar mag of 8.5 but is at 51 arcsecs and was easy by comparison.

An enjoyable couple of hours despite the mediocre seeing conditions

Philj

[John]

Nice report Phil - thanks for the post

Some nice pairings and groupings there - more for my "to do" list !

How do you get on with Eta Orionis ?

It's a "peanut" or touching pair with my 4" Vixen but I get a clear split with my ED120 refractor at 180x or more.

[Spica]

Yep. Nice report indeed. It's really fun splitting doubles, isn't it? Eta Cas has remained my own favourite double (although not in yr report, figured I'd just mention it as a recommendation if you haven't seen it yet) ever since I saw it first time. I guess mainly because the primary in this system is the same type of star as our sun, find that so compelling to watch!

[DarkerSky]

Sounds like a super couple of hours there Phil. Some really nice captures. I viewed 20 Gemini last month. A really nice sight with that relatively wide 20" split. Noted down both stars as subtly light yellow, with the northern component being the brighter of the pair.

[lunator]

phil

nice report

many of my fav doubles are in Gem and Orion