doubles observed tonight

[avtaram]

I am really enjoying my observing sessions now, everything seems to have clicked in place.

eq5 aligned properly, use a telrad finder instead of the finder scope that came with the 120ed ds-pro.

skywatcher panaview 2" 38mm for wide views and then the baader zoom and baader 2.25

barlow for close ups. star hopping using sky & telescopes pocket sky atlas and the telrad finder

seems very easy now. double stars observed tonight : izar, mizar, alberio and epsilon lyrae the

double double, all showed up beautifully in the 120 ed.

before starting the session I do a general sweep of the sky with 10x42 binoculars , these give a

6 degree view and are very good for viewing open star cluters.

next step is to start making notes of my obervations at some point.

Avtar

[Stu]

Nice one Avtar. Observing doubles seems to be all I am doing at the moment, but very nice they are too in a good refractor.

[bingevader]

Things were a bit fuzzy here last night, especially at high magnification, to be able to split some of the doubles, but those that were splittable at lower magnifications looked lovely!

Cheers

[Stu]

Similar here really, seeing was ok ish but some high haze around.

I managed a lovely split on the double double at x69, and a probable on one of the pairs at x55. Need better condition really. I must admit, for all the talk of seeing how low you can go and still split it, I love viewing it at high power. x197 in the 106mm was still lovely and crisp; could have driven a bus through the gap in each of the pairs ;-)

Stu

[bingevader]

Nah, here at x86 the best I could do was 2 peanuts! Nice dip in the middle of each so you could tell it was 2 stars, but no separation.

Separated at x200, but then two pairs of spikey blobs.

Cheers

[avtaram]

I liked the view of the double double at the highest power I could muster with the 8mm of the baader zoom and the 2.25

barlow ( x 252 please correct me if this is wrong).

Both pairs were separated nicely and pale yellow in colour.

One pair was aligned horizontally and the other vertically.

There was also another faint star halfway between the two pairs and slightly to the south, this was a greyish colour.

Izar was a beautifull sight , the difference in size between the two was obvious, the larger was yellow and the smaller a very

pale blue.

Avtar

[bingevader]

You're not wrong, just very lucky to still have clear views at over x250!

Nice bit of kit by the way.

I usually get the bins out too!

Put my glasses back on before going to bed just to enjoy the Milky Way!

Cheers

[pbyrne]

I'm a double star enthusiast , and a star hopper. For me the joy comes in hunting down these objects, admiring the colours and achieving the split. I especially like those doubles were the magnitudes of the stars are similar, it also makes tighter splits easier to observe. There are some cracking colour combinations, Albireo being the best, but I've seen double oranges, reds and whites, blues and yellows and oranges and yellows.

I also believe that doubles can survive those nights where the seeing is less than perfect, because they are not distended objects, such as galaxies or nebulae, and they do not require any specialist filters.

There is also the challenge, both to your eye and the telescope, to split those doubles that are at the theoretical limits, even those doubles that you cannot split still display a pleasing elongated shape.

Ok, I love doubles.

[cotterless45]

Have a look at Iota Cassiopeiae, about x150 will split into the triple. Lovely and climbing higher in the north. 15 Aquilae is an orange and purple pair. There are some cracking doubles around, loads in Cygnus with 61 and omicron amongst the finest,

Nick.