Splitting the Trapezium

[Eastman]

Great report Neil, nice job splitting the trapezium's E and F.

I never had succes on that one myself but I keep on trying?

[Littleguy80]

4 hours ago, Eastman said:

Great report Neil, nice job splitting the trapezium's E and F.

I never had succes on that one myself but I keep on trying?

It’s taken me a really long time to get them myself. I think there’s definitely an element of just getting the right conditions on the night. The seeing was very steady for this session 

[markclaire50]

On 06/12/2018 at 09:42, Littleguy80 said:

Awesome. Thanks John. I’ll give it a go with the 5mm and 6mm BGO then.

Hi. I wonder if a 6mm altair wave eyepiece would work at 254 x on my 127mm mak? Suspect sirius would bloat a lot. But maybe it would pick out the pup. Something to try soon before sirius disappears over summer. 

[John]

3 minutes ago, markclaire50 said:

Hi. I wonder if a 6mm altair wave eyepiece would work at 254 x on my 127mm mak? Suspect sirius would bloat a lot. But maybe it would pick out the pup. Something to try soon before sirius disappears over summer. 

Give it a go !

Light scatter is the bugbear when trying to split Sirius. The "Pup" star is nearly 10 arc seconds away from the primary so normally it would be a simple split but that massive brightness difference and glare from the primary make the little pup challenging to pull out. In an undriven scope the Pup star trails after the primary star as it drifts across the field of view.