52 Orionis

[John]

This is a real tough one I reckon. With my ED120 refractor tonight I was getting clear elongation and a "waist" between the two airey disks but no black space between them. This was at 180x and 257x. Orion was starting to sink into the western murk so conditions not ideal. This may "go" under better conditions with this scope. My data says 6th mag stars and a separation of ~1 arc second so a real test for 4"-5" (or even larger !) scopes.

This is my 1st attempt at splitting this one so "I'll be back !" as Arnie says

[chiltonstar]

This is a real tough one I reckon. With my ED120 refractor tonight I was getting clear elongation and a "waist" between the two airey disks but no black space between them. This was at 180x and 257x. Orion was starting to sink into the western murk so conditions not ideal. This may "go" under better conditions with this scope. My data says 6th mag stars and a separation of ~1 arc second so a real test for 4"-5" (or even larger !) scopes.

This is my 1st attempt at splitting this one so "I'll be back !" as Arnie says

I've had a couple of looks at this one with the same result; a pair of disks side by side, but no black line. Odd, because I've clearly separated pairs with 1 arcsec before, so maybe I need to keep trying as well, or wait til it's better placed in the sky...

Chris

[John]

Thanks for the feedback Chris

Orion is past it's best for me to be honest. Time to target some other challenges for a while I think

Zeta Herculis is one which I've yet to crack

[lunator]

John

I have split this pair in the omc250 at x180.

Never tried with the ST120.

Cheers

Ian

[John]

Thanks Ian. Maybe time to try the 12" F/5.3 on it !

[chiltonstar]

I've managed Zeta Her a couple of times with my 5" Mak, although it was fairly difficult and needed a lot of Espresso and patience.

All this talk of close doubles tempts me to break the habit of a lifetime (literally) and add a large Dob to my small scope farm.....

Chris

[cotterless45]

Tried zeta without result. However rho, 95 and the beautiful 100 are good,

Nick.

[Moonshane]

I managed a split in July last year

extremely high power needed though.

[John]

I managed a split in July last year http://stargazerslou...t/#entry1585371

extremely high power needed though.

400x - 600x ! - thats going some for the UK

[Moonshane]

well now you know how - big, good newts all the way!