Polaris and Mizar & Alcor

[PorkyB]

A couple more pictures tonight

Polaris

Polaris by porkyb, on Flickr

Mizar and Alcor

Mizar and Alcor by porkyb, on Flickr

[chiltonstar]

Is this really Polaris B with Polaris - it looks far too bright to me unless the image is a composite??

Chris

[kirkster501]

Great shots! I may try double star AP as well.

[Tinker1947]

One of my favored pass times looking at Doubles my Mizar/Alcor, the slight double refraction on Mizar is it own Double......

Mizar and it own Double

[PorkyB]

Chiltonstar - It's not a composite, I was pleasantly surprised that it came out as well as it did.

Tinker1947 - I really like your picture with the double diffraction spikes, I have taken a similar one (although I think yours is nicer). This time I wanted to reduce the exposure time and ISO to reduce the diffraction spikes and glare so I could clearly see the smaller stars in the doubles.

[Tinker1947]

There will be a balance between exposure time and the amount of stars DSS requires for stacking, as apposed to a single image, i would like to get as many back ground star as possible with out resorting to spending to much time at the keyboard getting it right, only time will tell or somebody on here with the right knowledge, I stick to 800 ISO.....

[chiltonstar]

Chiltonstar - It's not a composite, I was pleasantly surprised that it came out as well as it did.

Tinker1947 - I really like your picture with the double diffraction spikes, I have taken a similar one (although I think yours is nicer). This time I wanted to reduce the exposure time and ISO to reduce the diffraction spikes and glare so I could clearly see the smaller stars in the doubles.

I don't think the companion star shown can be Polaris B then which is 7 mags fainter than the primary.

Chris

[Tinker1947]

This might help.....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polaris

[PorkyB]

I don't think the companion star shown can be Polaris B then which is 7 mags fainter than the primary.

Well the separation is correct, I compared it with my other double star images. I don't see what else it could be. What do you think it is?

[chiltonstar]

Well the separation is correct, I compared it with my other double star images. I don't see what else it could be. What do you think it is?

Polaris B usually looks something like this (one of my inexpert images), which shows the very large mag difference. Polaris B is the very faint star at 10.00 o'clock (blueish colour).

There is a brightish star near to Polaris (HIP 7283) which shows up on wide field images of Polaris and looks superficially like part of a double system. Your second star may be this....Experts??

Chris

[PorkyB]

HIP 7283 is miles away. This star is 15-20 arc seconds away from Polaris, compare the separation with the Mizar picture. It really has to be Polaris B.

Here is a wide crop of the same image HIP 7283 is lower-right.

The image is the best one of a series of different exposures and ISO settings. I would like to claim to be extremely skillful and knowledgeable about this stuff, the reality is I just got lucky. There are a number of similar images to be found, so other people have managed it as well.