Arcturus (double?)

[jetstream]

So last nite I viewed out some bright stars checking out eyepiece differences.In one of my eyepieces I saw a faint star on the left of Arcturus(in my refractor,so I guess the right),does anybody know what star this is?I'm hoping it wasn't a case of over-excited averted imagination!Any ideas?

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Arcturus might be a spectroscopic binary (the jury is still out on that), but it has no readily separable companion. You could look in Stellarium using the ocular feature with the scope and EP parameters set correctly whether there is some background star (or comet, or asteroid???) that is in the right location (for asteroids you need to set the date and time to that of your observation).

[jetstream]

Great idea to check for other objects,I never thought of that,I assumed it was a star.With the Nagler I could see it everytime I viewed,but the other eyepieces might have given a"fleeting" glimpse-I would say no confirmation of the object in the others eyepieces though.I have Starry Night and looked for a star but couldn't identify which one,I'll check other stuff out.Once I saw a little black dot on Jupiter once,the program said it wan't a moon transit but an asteroid impact-I was pretty pumped up seeing that(last winter).Thanks M.H.F.W

[avtaram]

Using the luminos astronomy app I zoomed in on arcturus and there are two stars that appear close by.

Tyc 1472-1433-1 mag 9.63 and Tyc 1472-1427-1 mag 5.99

Avtar

[Jim Steele]

I think i saw something similar through my 10x50 binoculars on Thursday night. Bright Orange star down and left from the plough that i thought was arcturus but appeared to be a star very close to it as it looked 'fuzzy'?!