Double star musings

[JOC]

I've found that I can split some of the brighter double stars - Castor is lovely.  The Goto has a list of some in the system, but I've tried a few and couldn't see any splits - however, reading the thread about Polaris and remembering the thread about Sirius I'm now realising that not all the pairings are of two bright stars.  Is there a list somewhere of those where the pairings are bright and easy to see and those where I will have to concentrate a lot more on good nights?  Another thing I wondered generally is are all these pairings of two stars that are, for want of a better term, 'celestially linked', or are the pairings just an apparent closeness of two stars one of which is closer than the other and therefore just an optical illusion where, at this location (earth), they seem close together.

[chiltonstar]

50 minutes ago, JOC said:

I've found that I can split some of the brighter double stars - Castor is lovely.  The Goto has a list of some in the system, but I've tried a few and couldn't see any splits - however, reading the thread about Polaris and remembering the thread about Sirius I'm now realising that not all the pairings are of two bright stars.  Is there a list somewhere of those where the pairings are bright and easy to see and those where I will have to concentrate a lot more on good nights?  Another thing I wondered generally is are all these pairings of two stars that are, for want of a better term, 'celestially linked', or are the pairings just an apparent closeness of two stars one of which is closer than the other and therefore just an optical illusion where, at this location (earth), they seem close together.

Doubles are fantastic because they really do have colours, unlike those faint fuzzy thingies.......

One good source of double star listings is the Cambridge Double Star Atlas; in the latest edition, the authors (Bruce Macevoy and Wil Tirion) have been particularly careful to exclude  non-linked pairs, although they are all plotted in the excellent charts included.

Chris

[rwilkey]

Hi JOC, I have found that the Cambridge Double Star Atllas is the most useful guide ever, though it has become a little expensive now, I bought it years ago and it is the best star guide ever, apart from the pocket atlas, can be found here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cambridge-Double-Star-Atlas/dp/1107534208/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1488290271&sr=8-1&keywords=cambridge+double+stars

[ronin]

Not sure if this is any use:

Also not sure where it has positioned itself in this post.

Seems to be 3 tables and arranged in RA, Constellation and brightness of Primary then secondary - the last sounds the one you are asking for.

Short list in each case and they came from the Delaware Astro group, who have it seems now altered their site and the original has gone. I added SAO references in case your scope has some listed.

Think Michael put up a bigger list of doubles in Excel form, but not sure where or if I have a copy.

Doubles32SAO.doc

Have this pdf of doubles (100 of them it seems), appears to be ordered by RA (normal) but it has a column for primary-secondary brightness and seperation.

 

dblstar2.pdf

[Moonshane]

The Cambridge atlas is excellent but I find it slightly frustrating that the main big list is sorted by RA rather than constellation first. Maybe that's just me being 'new fashioned' though  

[JOC]

Ronin, many thanks for those.  The lists look to have exactly the information I was after - as a newbie it's nice to have some potential successes to go after rather than constantly feel that I have wasted my time looking for something with no idea as I what I am after.