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When little else is visible - binaries !!!


John

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Thank goodness for the plethora of multiple stars out there :icon_biggrin:

Tonights conditions here are really pretty poor. Only the brighter stars are showing though the cloud layer. Saturn was hazy and all on it's own - even Titan was masked by the haze :rolleyes2:

I wanted to observe something though so thank goodness there are some fine and easy to find binary stars nicely placed at the moment to please the eye and to challenge the optics a little too.

I have the ED120 refractor out tonight, which is an excellent double star scope. With a naked eye limiting magnitude of around mag 2 tonight (:rolleyes2:) I've stuck to the brighter favourites and taken some time on them - stringing out the enjoyment as it were !

I've observed a dozen or so thus far including good old Albireo at the "head" end of the Swan, the somewhat more challenging Delta at the upper wing tip, the always lovely quartet of Epsilon in Lyra, more colours with Gamma in Andromeda,  one of my long time personal favourites, the lovely triple Iota in Cassiopeia, back in the Swan for the ultra-tough "peanut" of Lambda, and the challenge of Pi in Aquilla the Eagle.

Pi Aquillae has really become a firm favourite of mine at this time of year. It's relatively easy to find even on a murky night like this. The separation is a good test of optics and observer at 1.3-1.5 (depends on your source) arc seconds and the there is, if you observe carefullly, a colour difference between the two stars. The slightly brighter A star (mag 6.34) appeared yellow-orange and the B star (mag 6.75) a pale blue this evening using magnifications between 225x and 300x. There is a more distant C star but thats mag 12.90 - no chance at all for that one this evening !

I'll go and find some more of these systems now - theres loads out there and they put a smile on an astronomers face when nothing much else is showing itself :icon_biggrin:

Artists impression of sunset on a world in a binary system:

wide_binary2_sig.png

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Nice report. I suspect you've done better than most people tonight. Solid overcast in Leeds.

I failed to split iota cas last week. Will try again, hopefully Tuesday is looking ok.  Have quite a bit of LP here so I'm trying doubles at the moment myself.  I'm going to try some of the ones you've mentioned here.  Thanks!

Dave

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Great report, John. Lots of inspiration for future sessions. I wasn't expecting any viewing tonight but managed Saturn, Eta Cas, Iota Cas, the Owl cluster and M57. 

Iota Cas was a struggle. I could only see 2 stars rather than 3 at 180x. Bright white primary and a pale blue secondary. Is higher magnification required for the third?

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1 hour ago, Littleguy80 said:

..Iota Cas was a struggle. I could only see 2 stars rather than 3 at 180x. Bright white primary and a pale blue secondary. Is higher magnification required for the third?

I can usually get the 3 stars at 150x.

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Nice report John. I just had a quick 15 mins, trying out the AZ-GTI goto and happened upon Sigma Cass in the list of doubles. A very pretty Double, not difficult at 3.1" and the two components of mag 4.88 and 7.2. It was a new one for me, and beautiful to view in the Tak as always. Must seek out more of these.

I can't believe I missed looking at Caroline's Rose when I was so close to it! Doh!

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29 minutes ago, Littleguy80 said:

Not sure why I couldn't see the third then. Will have to try again!

The third component is quite a bit fainter - sometimes difficult to see with haze/thin coud etc, although at least the seeing was excellent last night! With Epsilon Lyrae, I had a near-textbook view at x270 (180 Mak), with the Airy disks close to theoretical diameter and beautiful diffraction rings, although the fainter stars between the two pairs were difficult to see.

Chris

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Well done John. Binaries are a great thing to view if conditions are poor. I was out last night briefly with binoculars only, but the sky was that poor that I never bothered getting any of my scopes out, and been pretty tired too bed was calling my up to sleep. 

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39 minutes ago, chiltonstar said:
1 hour ago, Littleguy80 said:

 

The third component is quite a bit fainter - sometimes difficult to see with haze/thin coud etc, although at least the seeing was excellent last night! With Epsilon Lyrae, I had a near-textbook view at x270 (180 Mak), with the Airy disks close to theoretical diameter and beautiful diffraction rings, although the fainter stars between the two pairs were difficult to see.

 

There was certainly some high level cloud about last night in Norwich. The sky just looked dimmer than it had on Saturday. Epsilon Lyrae sounds like a lovely target. 200x is about as high as I can push my scope so might be a little too tight. You don't know unless you try though :) 

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Epsilon Lyrae is one of the celestial "must sees" IMHO even if you are not into doubles. We always have a scope on it at outreach events :icon_biggrin:

It should be split from 100x or so upwards but seeing the 2 pairs clearly gets easier at 150x - 200x.

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1 hour ago, Littleguy80 said:

There was certainly some high level cloud about last night in Norwich. The sky just looked dimmer than it had on Saturday. Epsilon Lyrae sounds like a lovely target. 200x is about as high as I can push my scope so might be a little too tight. You don't know unless you try though :) 

That should be plenty. Make sure your collimation is spot on and it should be doable. I always find refractors do a better job on this due to their tighter star images, but still should be quite possible to split with a Newt. I can do it with my TAL Alkor which has a mighty 65mm aperture :) 

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7 minutes ago, Piero said:

Very nice report John. :) 

I've always been curious about Aquila, but missed aperture for really digging into it. I will give a go to Pi Aquilae using this 100mm. Thanks for sharing!

Pi Aquilae is quite doable in the 100mm Piero, looks great when the seeing is good.

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1 hour ago, alan potts said:

.... that ED120 must be one hell of a scope to get a shot like that, didn't know you did AP.

Alan

No AP needed Alan - just shove in a high power eyepiece, glug half a bottle of Shiraz and thats what you see ....... :icon_compress:

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