Fascination with double stars.P

[cotterless45]

Easy to observe even in poor skies. Plenty of resources, try "Double stars for small telescopes",

Nick.

[Stargazer_00]

This one?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Double-Stars-Small-Telescopes-Stargazing/dp/1931559325

Might give it a punt, cheers

EDIT: punted, they only have 1 left.  £20 all in.

[Qualia]

Ay, it's a handy resource and I got it myself a few months back after Nick's recommendation. I think it's well accompanied by Cambridge's Star Atlas of Double Stars, they go well hand in hand. With hindsight, I reckon one could hunt down a good list of one's own doubles to observe from the web but the book does keep things tidy, has an excellent introduction and makes for an suberb reference guide.

[NGC 1502]

I'm a double star fan as well.

As said, they show up well with poor ( as in light polluted ) skies.  I get as much fun chasing double / multiple stars from my town back garden, as I do hunting the faint stuff from a dark site.

If you observe double stars, planets, the moon, then you can do great astronomy from a town, enough to keep us entertained for a lifetime.

I use the Cambridge Double star atlas, plus several other guides and online resources.

Regards, Ed.

[michaelmorris]

I too use the books 'Double stars for small telescopes' and the 'Cambridge Double Star Atlas' for hunting down double stars. They're both great. the Webb Society's 'A Visual Atlas of Double Stars http://www.webbdeepsky.com/notes/doublest01.html to be a great resource for visual observing of double stars.

[wxsatuser]

I'm a double star fan as well............. observing and imaging.

[Mark at Beaufort]

Ditto - the books 'Double stars for small telescopes' and the 'Cambridge Double Star Atlas' for hunting down double stars.

[PorkyB]

This is an excellent starter list: http://users.compaqnet.be/doublestars/  There are 22 doubles on this list which the author gives a 5-star rating.  They are all visible from the UK at the moment and definitely worth tracking down.

Or you could just try to find all the doubles in Pleiades or Hyades

[avtaram]

Yes its Doubles for me as well. I have the aforementioned books but I now pick out the doubles from a star atlas first and make

drawings and notes of my observations and then compare them to whats written about them in the books and elsewhere on

the net.

Avtar

[Pig]

They are wonderful to look at

Do the books tell you the distances between them ?

[NGC 1502]

They are wonderful to look at

Do the books tell you the distances between them ?

Don't know about the other books mentioned, but my early edition of the Cambridge Double Star Atlas gives the apparent distance between the stars, the magnitude, RA & DEC, but in most cases unfortunately not the position angle.   Don't know if that omission has been sorted in later print runs.

Position angle link - http://bestdoubles.wordpress.com/2010/12/12/left-is-right-and-right-is-left-a-simple-users-guide-to-pa/

Regards, Ed.