Tight doubles

[Stu]

There was a thread today about naked eye doubles which prompted me to pull a list from the Double Stars iPhone app. Whilst there, I noticed a 'tight doubles' list which I thought I would offer up for comment and see who had managed to split them. Some are exceptionally difficult to split for us northern types (being only visible in the Southern Hemisphere ) but most are visible. They are all between 1 & 2 arc seconds separation.

Enjoy!

Stu

[John]

I've managed to split Eta Orionis and Zeta Herculis and got a "touching pair" from 52 Orionis from that list. That was with my ED120 refractor. Very tough split on Zeta Herc.

[cotterless45]

I used to pay little time to doubles, but they are excellent targets, especially the tight / contrasting ones.

There are 2100 doubles in Sky and Telescope " Double stars for small telescopes" , a fascinating area to view and most often possible from the edge of town,.

Nick.

[John]

I've always enjoyed the challenge of splitting a tight double and the visual pleasure of viewing associated pairs / triples / more of contrasting colours.

I feel that splitting a tight double star are a good test of instrument optics, observing conditions and the observer.

[NGC 1502]

I get as much fun finding double/multiple stars from my town backyard as I do chasing galaxies etc from a dark site.

Double stars are among sky objects least affected by light pollution as are planetary and lunar observations.

As mentioned in previous posts, double stars can be a challenge too, not a soft target.

Regards, Ed.

[lunator]

Even though I have moved to a much darker sky location, I still keep doubles as my main interest,

Seen most of these, all good targets

Cheers

Ian

[Bart]

Like Nick, I always thought doubles were a bit of a 'sissy' pursuit. But as I always say to my kids, always try something twice Last night, with a moonlit sky, and the moon itself almost full, there was 'nothing to do', although it was a shame, as it was a clear night. Typical!!! Anyway, went to Albireo. Lovely as always. Then tried Almach - very impressed. Thought it looked as beautiful as Albireo, and surprised I dont hear much about it. But I suppose its fair to say I may have glazed over when I heard/read about doubles before. Tried a couple of others that were enjoyable. Then tried Delta Cyg. Either thats difficult or I'm completely missing it. Its supposed to be a triplet, two close and one far out. Eh..how far out? Am I doing this wrong. I note in Skysafari it states this will be the north star for about 4 centuries around 11,250AD. Can't wait!

Barry

[cotterless45]

Delta Cygni has a seperation of 2.5", at x226 I caught this as a tiny globe almost touching. The mags are 2.9 and 6.3. You'll be needing super collimation and perhaps stopping down the aperture. It is a lovely silver and green combination.

Nick.

[Mark at Beaufort]

Stu thanks for the suggestions. I wanted to test my 180 Mak/Cass tonight which has a new RDF that slips into the standard finderscope bracket. I decided on doubles with the Moon being full and started to compile a list of tight doubles. You have now saved me the trouble.

So its Epsilon Aries, STF 644, Zeta Hercules (going to be hard), Lambda Oph and following the last post Delta Cygnus as my main targets tonight.

Mark

[Bart]

Delta Cygni has a seperation of 2.5", at x226 I caught this as a tiny globe almost touching. The mags are 2.9 and 6.3. You'll be needing super collimation and perhaps stopping down the aperture. It is a lovely silver and green combination.

Nick.

Thanks Nick

Barry

[John]

I've been using Pi Aquilae as a test double quite a lot recently. The separation is around 1.5 arc seconds which is a good test for most scopes. Mu Cygni is another nice one at 1.8 arc seconds and around 1 mag difference between the components.

[Doley68]

Stu thanks for the suggestions. I wanted to test my 180 Mak/Cass tonight which has a new RDF that slips into the standard finderscope bracket. I decided on doubles with the Moon being full and started to compile a list of tight doubles. You have now saved me the trouble.

So its Epsilon Aries, STF 644, Zeta Hercules (going to be hard), Lambda Oph and following the last post Delta Cygnus as my main targets tonight.

Mark

I also have a 180 mak and love my doubles. Pi aquilae is quite easy at x225 and it eats delta cygni for breakfast. Havn`t managed zeta Hercules yet though!

I was lucky enough to meet Pete Lawrence a few months ago and he said that double star observers were the train spotters of astronomy!! Outrageous!!   (or is he right!)   .

[Stu]

Stu thanks for the suggestions. I wanted to test my 180 Mak/Cass tonight which has a new RDF that slips into the standard finderscope bracket. I decided on doubles with the Moon being full and started to compile a list of tight doubles. You have now saved me the trouble.

So its Epsilon Aries, STF 644, Zeta Hercules (going to be hard), Lambda Oph and following the last post Delta Cygnus as my main targets tonight.

Mark

Good stuff Mark, glad it is of use.

Let us know how you get on.

Stu

[Mark at Beaufort]

Stu - Did okay with your suggested doubles plus a new more of my favourites. However, I just cannot split Zeta Hercules.

Mark

[Mark at Beaufort]

I was lucky enough to meet Pete Lawrence a few months ago and he said that double star observers were the train spotters of astronomy!! Outrageous!!   (or is he right!)   .

Can't agree with Pete suggesting train spotters. You could argue the same with the Messier or Herschel 400 list of DSOs. Come to think of it - is the Moore Marathon which Pete complied a 'train spotters' list!!!