Bogardus.

[cotterless45]

Theta Aurigae. (SAO 58636) Easy to find by eye , just point some power at it. It's a multiple group with a visual c companion.

 

On paper this 4" split should be straightforward and not ticklish. It's very dependant on seeing and a good sky, good glass helps. The main star is 75 times brighter than the companion ! Last time out , it was sparklingly easy trying out a 120ed. Had a right grin catching it at low magnification.

Let's get the details first. It's 175 light years away . 285 times brighter and a radius x5.4 of Sol.it has a magnetic field a thousand times stronger than here. The companion is 185 AU away and has a 1200 year orbit. William Herschel initially caught the wide companion , but not the close B.

I've always had a challenging time due to the glare of the main star. For those trying , "try harder !" This glare can hide the B. It's just a delightful view when it cracks open. It's easier than Psi Cassiopeiae.

[Pig]

Nice one Nick, I am still awaiting some clear skies ..... no more EU travelling for me for the foreseeable future, so hopefully I won’t miss any of the clear Northants skies that always seem to coincide with when I am away ?

[Demonperformer]

Nice capture, Nick.

When working with close/disparate doubles, do you ever use the "diffraction technique" (not sure if that is a proper name) when something like a Y-mask pushes the light of the main star into spikes and you line up the secondary in the gaps?

[Knighty2112]

Nice report Nick. Next chance I get I’ll see I can split it with any of my scopes.  

[wookie1965]

Another one for me to try great drawings as usual.

[chiltonstar]

When Mars was no longer in sight, I had a look at Theta Aur last night with my 180 Mak (I can remember looking many years ago with my 102mm frac, but not since).

A beautiful diamond pinpoint beside the primary, which was scintillating with colour because of the relatively low altitude, and the 3/5 seeing. About the same difficulty as Rigel perhaps?

There is a nice double one degree away from Theta Aur - SAO 58535 - which with the seeing last night was just about split (1.8 arcsec).

Chris

[John]

Thanks for the reminder of this lovely target Nick.

I got it with the ED120 last time out and just now I have it in the 180x field of the Tak FC100DL and all 4 componants showing nicely. I believe the brightness difference between A and B is 75x ?

Very nice set of stars

[chiltonstar]

7 hours ago, John said:

Thanks for the reminder of this lovely target Nick.

I got it with the ED120 last time out and just now I have it in the 180x field of the Tak FC100DL and all 4 componants showing nicely. I believe the brightness difference between A and B is 75x ?

Very nice set of stars

Are the two fainter wide components part of the system John, or just "field stars"?

CDSA describes it as a double with field stars, whereas Stelle Doppie is a bit ambiguous, but lists four visible components. A nice multiple anyway and nicely placed at the moment.

Chris

[John]

8 hours ago, chiltonstar said:

Are the two fainter wide components part of the system John, or just "field stars"?

CDSA describes it as a double with field stars, whereas Stelle Doppie is a bit ambiguous, but lists four visible components. A nice multiple anyway and nicely placed at the moment.

Chris

Good question Chris and I agree that opinion seems to be divided. A nice grouping though, whether associated or not.

The primary star seems to go by quite a few different names as well - Mahasim seems popular with a number of sources.

Just had a sense of "deja vu"

 

[chiltonstar]

Interesting to look back to this report of 2014 John!

I'm surprised how much brighter the C and D components are with my 180 Mak cpd with the 127 Mak (I thought I had last seen it with my 102mm frac, but obviously not).

Chris