More Doubles in Leo

[lunator]

Last night I viewed some additional doubles in Leo.

Cheers

Ian

Observing Report 10/05/2008 A rollercoaster ride to find some more doubles in Leo. Continuing on from the observing session a few days ago I decided to track down a few more doubles in Leo. Conditions were fairly good, with seeing about III/V & Transparency II/V.

The first target was STF1451. Although the closest bright star is Zeta Leo the easiest way to find it is to go from Beta Leo to Delta Leo and continue on in a straight line for the same distance STF1451 will be slightly to the north of this. I found the pair was just split in the 24mm Hyperion. The primary appeared cream coloured but the secondary was too faint to see any colour and when the transparency decreased averted vision was needed. From a dark site this should be an easy pair for a small scope at x100 magnification.

The next pair up was STF1468. The easiest way to find this pair right in the middle of the Lion’s back is to follow a line down from 40 Leo Minor through to 41 Leo Minor and continue on for just under the same distance. I could not split the pair in the 24mm but were an easy split in the 6mm. The stars are almost identical and appear white.

Moving further South the next pair to be viewed was STF1482. This pair is 2.5 degrees West of Chi Leo and just over 1 degree North West of 56 Leo. The pair have a subtle colour contrast with the primary being creamy white and the secondary appearing a pale orange. The pair was easily split in the 24mm (x50).

Heading back North the next pair on the list was STF1555AB-C. The pair can be easily located 5 degrees South East of Xi Ursa Majoris (a great pair to observe if you are in the vicinity). At 6^th magnitude the pair can be spotted easily but the AB pair is very tight at under 0.7”. The pair could not be split in the 6mm (x200) and was only elongated in the 5mm (x240) I finally managed a split in the 4mm (x300) but it was only intermittent as and when the seeing permitted. The pair components were both white. The C component was easily seen in the 24mm but at 11^th magnitude sowed no colour.

The final pair in Leo on the list was STF1558A-C. The pair can be found by moving about 4 degrees North from the mid point of the line joining beta & delta Leo and is a degree West of 92 Leo. The AC pair was easily split in the 24mm (x50) and both appeared off-white in colour and appear almost identical. The B component is just over a degree from A component and a little dimmer (0.3 of a magnitude). Due to the deteriorating seeing the split proved very elusive and I could not get a decent split.

[Paxo]

Excellent report Ian, sounds like you had a busy and fruitful session. I see you had poor seeing and transparency, not just me then!!!!

Steve.

[lunator]

Steve

The tranparency got progressively worse as the session went on.

The seeing was very variable.....

Cheers

Ian