Not sure if double star or not?

[Kamet]

Hope someone can offer some help. My best night so far last night as far as clear skies concerned. Only had an hour, but decided to try Orion as it was the only bit in the sky I can see over the street lights! So I did see M42 as a hazy grey blur with very bright specs in my 32mm TeleVue and closer with my BST 18mm. So am assuming in light pollution that is the best I will get with my set up. However, my question is .....what should I see in my 127 MAK when looking at Mintaka? I was trying for the 'double star'. So how far away is the 'double'. I could see another bright spec quite close....but there was quite a gap when viewed through the above mentioned eyepieces. Is that it? Also where should it be in relation? I still can't get my head around what I see in the sky with my naked eye and what I see in my scope. Are they upside down/ wrong way around? What I see doesn't seem to match pictures on the web....so I am totally confused as to what I am seeing.

[Tinker1947]

If you don't have Stellarium its a free download and when you zoom in it will show doubles to a much better degree that you EP's / Eyes will see, zoom in on Mizar down to 0.0001 to see what i mean.....

http://www.stellarium.org/

[ronin]

A 127 mak with a 32mm plossl will give a view of about 1 degree, to frame M42 I think you could need a little more. that would also shrink M42 and so brighten it a little.

Mintaka is a multiple star, it is a close double star, Mintaka A and Mintaka B, they are very close and I doubt seperable with amateur scopes. They orbit at 5.78 days, that period implies very close together. The "next" is 52" seperation, say about 1 minute. That is a mag 7 star so could have been lost in the light pollution. It is also not helped that the belt stars are in front of a bit of a cluster, so there will be a fair number of stars behind and appearing close to Mintaka just to confuse everything. There is a forth star between the close double and the one at 52"

Orientation, without the diagonal I would expect left+right is flipped as well as Up+Down, however you will have a diagonal and that also flips Up+Down, meaning that after everything you have only a Left+Right flip. This assumes that the eyepiece does nothing. (I think).

I find it best to ignore all the "examples" of what you will see through an eyepiece as what you see depends on the magnification, field of view and scope objective diameter, and then throw in how good/bad your eyes are.

[Kamet]

Thanks for the responses so far. Yes I have worked out now that I have a left right flip. That means that if I am looking with my eyes at Orion's belt, Mintaka is on the right. When I look through my scope it is on the left of the 3? Is that correct? No wonder my goto is out. I am most probably not aligning to the correct star!!!! I have downloaded the virtual moon atlas and can show that flipped...... it's going to be harder to get my brain to flip the constellations

Also, I take it that there is no point me looking for double stars with my MAK as I won't be able to separate them.

[Stu]

On the last point Kamet, nothing wrong with a mak for doubles, in fact they are very well suited; no diffraction spikes, good contrast and a long focal length to give high magnification are all good characteristics for double star viewing.

As mentioned earlier, Mizar and Alcor is a great first target, as are Almaak and Alberio which are lovely different coloured doubles. There are plenty in Orion to look at, have a look on google for 'doubles in Orion' and you should find something to help you find them.

Stu

[Kamet]

Thank you for your advice Stu. I will certainly try those - and have just watched a BBC clip on Mizor and Alcor. I had got a list of doubles, but being new am still getting my head around the naming protocols. It would help knowing greek, so am having to learn alpha, beta, etc. as I never bothered knowing them all before.

It also shows you should read instructions and help files when setting up software. I have now configured Stellarium for my setup - didn't realise you could use Ctrl+O to see a scope view and flip it too Now I shall plan my viewing and make sketches of what I should see. Makes the whole effort of viewing far more interesting I think. I have a very limited view from my house - so am concentrating on trying to learn my way around that view. Being able to see a flip view on screen as I would see it through the scope is going to be very helpful.

Need some clear skies again now.....