Is it just me or has Cor Coroli changed colour?

[Principal-Kohoutec]

Hi, last night I looked at this pair of stars through my telescope. The brighest was a deep orange and the dimmer a vivid blue (a lot like alberio but a little closer together). Now, early last year  I looked at the same pair of stars and I distincly remember them both being white and of roughly equal in brightness. Am I witnessing stella evolution before my eyes? Has anyone noticed this or noticed it in the past? What colour were they last time you looked at them? Am I looking at the wrong star? I would be interested to know...  

[Principal-Kohoutec]

The star is the brightest in Canis Venatici, its a well known double. 

[Wyvern]

Hi,

I'm not generally a "double star" observer but your post on this object caught my attention.

Sad to say, but I don't think you've witnessed "stellar evolution", but join the long list of observers who can't seem to agree on the colours of this pair.

A web search on this pair shows that different scopes and different observers place the colours at anything from orange through green to blue. Guess it shows how different people perceive colour.

Regards, Les

[NGC 1502]

Just wondering at what time of night you were viewing Cor Caroli ? 

From southern England, it is very low in the northern sky during the evening in winter, and doesn't get to a good elevation until very late in the night.

When stars are at a low elevation, colours can be distorted due to viewing through much more turbulent atmosphere.

Maybe that's what you saw ?

But it's indeed a fine sight in telescopes of all sizes.

Regards, Ed.

[cotterless45]

Cor Corioli is a good kicking off point ! Between this and Chara is the wonderfully bright M94 and between this and Arcturus is M3. Cor Corioli is also the kicking off point to the wonderful Canes Venatici galaxies and down to the Coma Bernices,

Nick.

[Peter Drew]

From my experience, I would have said that your last year's observation was the unusual one as CC primary always looks reddish to me. 

[Principal-Kohoutec]

Hi thanks for the replies

In answer to Ed's question I can't remember the exact date but I would say that it had cleared the horizon by about 40 degrees and the seeing was pretty good. I will say that I'm using  different scope from the last time I looked (80mm refractor with much better glass as appossed to my old 60mm) so maybe it would bring out the colours more?

Will

[Principal-Kohoutec]

From my experience, I would have said that your last year's observation was the unusual one as CC primary always looks reddish to me. 

And the dimmer one a deep blue?