Good seeing - tight Orion doubles

[John]

7 minutes ago, Moonshane said:

bloomin cloudy all week here.

I thought it was going to be like that here too. Much lower than Rigel and it's hopeless because of fog forming. If that rises up then I'll have to pack it in.

Everything running with dew as well, which is a bit unusual here. The scope tube is made of this material called Kruppax which seems to keep the objective dew free even when everything else is covered. I've had the finder in a couple of times to let it clear. Still, at least there is stuff to be seen ATM.

[chiltonstar]

3 hours ago, John said:

Conditions a little better now. Still on 14 Orionis. Primary is yellow orange to my eye, secondary blue / grey. Very, very tight but split is showing a little more often now and even when not split it's a clear unequal brightness binary star. One of the tightest I've ever split but this is only my 3rd session with the 130mm TMB / LZOS triplet. Some scope !

 

I see the PA as nearly due W as well, although I'm not sure I see much colour difference between the pair - primary yellowish, secondary maybe bluer or is it Purkinje?

Chris

[chiltonstar]

I had another go with 14 Orionis, and got a reasonable separation between the two for a few seconds every now and then, even though it was -7C and raining ice crystals! Still can't see much colour difference though.

You must have done very well with your 130mm 'frac John - I made an Aberrator simulation, and it's not difficult to see why it is such a difficult double:-

Chris (still frozen)

 

 

[John]

Thanks Chris - it's challenging alright !

I'm using the Tak 100 DL tonight. I can see that 14 is a double and I can see the orientation and colour hints but it's a "snowman" shape and I can't see any chance of splitting it with 3.9" aperture (of course).

The Lzos 130 F/9.25 has a pretty fearsome reputation - I'm starting to understand why !