Favourite Doubles

[blueroom]

I saw Albireo for the 1st time last night (after reading about it in TLAO) one star was orange and the other star was a pale blue....really nice

Can anyone recommend any other good double stars to hunt for? A dead easy one I like is Mizar & Alcor in Ursa Major.

[swamp thing]

Almach in andromeda is another colourful pair. Bit low at this time of year though.

[Qualia]

There are just so many gorgeous doubles and a list like this might be useful. If you get the chance, just drift mellowly through Lyra and Cygnus, spotting one double after another, and try to visually identify their spectra-type (temperature/colour) and in turn their possible luminosity. You might also want to try your hand at measuring them. The other night it dawned on me that 60 solar systems could easily fit in that tiny spacing between Albireo and its beautiful companion

[rwilkey]

Epsilon Lyrae - the Double Double in Lyra is a good one, find Vega first and then it's just to the left, or right in the orientation of the scope! Another good one is Algieba in Leo (Gamma Leonis), the one right at the beginning of his neck in the 'sickle'. Also look at Orion's belt, the two outer stars Alnitak (Zeta Orionis) and Mintaka (Delta Orionis) are quite good ones to split as well, not a good time of year for Orion I am afraid.

[adrianelliott]

Albireo is indeed very beautiful. I had a crack at Epsilon Lyrae a couple of nights ago with my 6 inch reflector and a barlowed 8mm eyepiece for 187x I believe. I failed to split either of the first double although they did look 'elongated'. Not sure whether the issue was seeing, colimation or maybe that my eyes were unstable (I wear contact lenses for astigmatism and sometimes they wobble a bit)! I did do a star test afterwards and felt that although the airy disc was bang on, the seeing was bad.

[ronin]

Someone in Delaware keeps a very nice and relatively small list:

DelawareAA

One day I will actually bookmark it as every time I want it I have to search for a list of coloured double stars, but it tends to come out as the first item.

[Donkeiller]

Try Izar (Epison Boo)- nice size/colour contrast.Also Marfik -two more or less equal yellow stars- only 1.4asec separation so need good seeing and 80mm + scope. Both are up at the moment.

[dick_dangerous]

Cor Caroli (Alpha Canes Venatici) is bright and easy to seperate - a bit like Alberio although maybe not as colourful and evenly matched.

DD

[blueroom]

Thanks for this guys, that's given me some good targets to hunt for

[NGC404]

Try Iota Trianguli

Dead easy to find and nice colours

[cotterless45]

This'll do you for a few sessions,http://www.amazon.co.uk/Double-Stars-Small-Telescopes-Stargazing/dp/1931559325/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1370873301&sr=8-1&keywords=Sissy+haas and

http://users.compaqnet.be/doublestars/

Nick.

[cotterless45]

Forgot this one ,

http://www.eaglecreekobservatory.org/eco/doubles/

[Moonshane]

Try Izar (Epison Boo)- nice size/colour contrast.Also Marfik -two more or less equal yellow stars- only 1.4asec separation so need good seeing and 80mm + scope. Both are up at the moment.

Izar is my favourite double. I also like Delta Cygni, Iota Cass, Algeiba, Alcor / Mizar, Castor, Alkalurops and some of those mentioned above.

[DarkerSky]

Alpha Herculis is in my top 5 summer doubles. Rusty orange primary with a yellow-green secondary. Separation is about 4.8 arc seconds so will look pretty neat in your 200p at a moderate power.

[Davey-T]

Don't think anyone mentioned Omicron Cygni, high up at the moment, but I think it's actually o cyg and 30 cyg that make a nice picture.

Dave