Dog and pup

[alan potts]

I have had some very clear and very dark skies just lately but now of couse the Moon is spoiling things a bit.

While I writing the reviews on the Delos 4.5mm and 10mm I checked out the the Dog Star or Sirius as it is known. Two of the four nights I saw the double star or the 'Pup', I was using different scopes all four nights.

I don't know why but when I was using the 190mm M/N I put in my 35mm Panoptic, this give me a rather small X28.5, nothing really. I am sure I could see the double, I even checked again the following night and saw the same. Is it possible to see at this magnification, am I only seeing it because I know it's there, or am I going bonkers.

Seeing was excellent and air was still, there was no Moon at the time. I wish you all could have some skies like I get, you would all love them. Even walking out of a fully lit house I could see 5th magnitude overhead after 10-15 seconds.

Alan.

[Robstargazer15]

Sirius is one of them hard to split double stars. I succeded with a Celestron 4se at very high power. Very hard observation to make.

Porrima is just as hard to split,i found it tougher to split.

[John]

Fantastic achievement Alan

Not sure about the low power split though - I've been thinking that around 300x under excellent conditions would be required.

I've tried and failed to split Sirius on a number of occasions with some decent scopes and eyepieces. It's not well placed from my back garden - too low and I have to wait for it to appear between the houses to get a chance.

It was split by one of our members with a 10" Orion Optics mak-cassegrain at one of the recent SGL star parties but I missed out on a glimpse

I'm hoping my new-to-me 12" newtonian will give me a chance of achieving this - it has a very good quality mirror and a small central obstruction so should be in with a chance if the conditions co-operate

Porrima is much, much easier than Sirius I find - Sirius B is much fainter than Sirus A wheras Porrima, though tighter, has much more equal brightness components.

[Plantins]

I split it with 126x in my C14 with a 31mm Nagler. Conditions play a critical part in being successful.

[alan potts]

I have split Sirius many time now but it makes so much difference being at least 11 degrees higher in the sky. Most times it is easier with the 115mm Refr' and I use around X90-x120, stars are still very tight at these magnifications, as you would expect.

I believe the claim of seeing this at x28.5 could well be a case of an over active imagination, yes I know I have better skies here but I can't be seeing this at such low power. Has anyone else had this seeing it because you know it's there issue. I had the same thing when looking for the star in M57. I kept seeing something but it was not in the right place, I nailed it in the end after 18 hours on it over 10 weeks.

Alan.

[chiltonstar]

Fantastic achievement Alan

Not sure about the low power split though - I've been thinking that around 300x under excellent conditions would be required.

I've tried and failed to split Sirius on a number of occasions with some decent scopes and eyepieces. It's not well placed from my back garden - too low and I have to wait for it to appear between the houses to get a chance.

It was split by one of our members with a 10" Orion Optics mak-cassegrain at one of the recent SGL star parties but I missed out on a glimpse

I'm hoping my new-to-me 12" newtonian will give me a chance of achieving this - it has a very good quality mirror and a small central obstruction so should be in with a chance if the conditions co-operate

Porrima is much, much easier than Sirius I find - Sirius B is much fainter than Sirus A wheras Porrima, though tighter, has much more equal brightness components.

I would agree - Porrima is nowhere near as difficult as Sirius, at least with my scopes & eyeballs.

I've only split Sirius at quite high mag - I needed to move the Pup away from the glare of the primary a bit.

Chris

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

In a few years (2019) the separation will be 11", so it will be as good as it gets. One thing to keep in mind is internal reflections causing ghost images in such a bright point source. These should however move with respect to the main star as the object moves through the FOV