Antares Challenge

[John]

2 hours ago, Knighty2112 said:

.... except for that one elusive steady clear night that might assist in allowing a clean split.

Judging by my recent experiences, that is what is needed. Antares looked very clean and well defined, unusually so, when I did manage to get the split the night before last.

Last night it was the more normal sparkling ball.

 

[IB20]

2 hours ago, Knighty2112 said:

Tried last night with my 102mm Ed f11 ‘frac with 4mm Tele Vie Delight EP. Even pushed magnification with a 2x barlow also. Whilst I could see that there were two pairs of stars with nice contrasting red and green colouring, the seeing didn’t allow a clean split

This has been my experience pretty much every time I attempt to split Antares.

Xi Scorpii is a nice target in this area, a triple with a close double, I haven’t split the A & B stars but have snow-manned it.

[wookie1965]

I will have to have a go at Antares see if I can split it. 

[Spile]

Antares was a jumping orange mess for me last night so no split. I did manage to split A B C and D (All BW) of Nu Scorpii (Jabbah) as a consolation but B was only just so a 4*

Beta Scorpi  (Acrab) A (YW) and C (YB) was a superb 4* 

[SuburbanMak]

Tried this last night with a Mak 127 and a Baader Zoom &… nope. 

I was on the South Downs & there was quite a bit of sea haze to the South over the Isle of White. Another time… 

 

 

[John]

Slightly better tonight but, at best, only suggestions of the companion star on and off with the 100mm refractor rather than the definite views of a couple of nights ago.

 

[IB20]

Bagged this last night finally. First viewed Beta Scorpii as that was highest and although not a difficult double I did notice how settled the airy discs looked. Moving to the double double confirmed this along with a tight double HR8040 in Cygnus. I relocated to an upstairs window and got straight on to Antares, lo and behold there it was with the 5mm BST, nice and clear split - cyan and orange components. As quickly as it arrived it vanished again and turned into a golden orange mirror ball before being obscured by a neighbour’s roof. 

[John]

3 minutes ago, IB20 said:

Bagged this last night finally. First viewed Beta Scorpii as that was highest and although not a difficult double I did notice how settled the airy discs looked. Moving to the double double confirmed this along with a tight double HR8040 in Cygnus. I relocated to an upstairs window and got straight on to Antares, lo and behold there it was with the 5mm BST, nice and clear split - cyan and orange components. As quickly as it arrived it vanished again and turned into a golden orange mirror ball before being obscured by a neighbour’s roof. 

What scope were you using ?

 

[IB20]

11 minutes ago, John said:

What scope were you using ?

 

It was the 80mm Starbase. I left it out all evening as I’d been WL solar viewing in the afternoon so perhaps it was perfectly acclimated to go along with the steady atmosphere! 

[John]

8 hours ago, IB20 said:

It was the 80mm Starbase. I left it out all evening as I’d been WL solar viewing in the afternoon so perhaps it was perfectly acclimated to go along with the steady atmosphere! 

That is a truly splendid result assuming that you are at around my latitude (Bristol-ish) rather than much further south.

With my Tak FC100-DL, which has superb optics, the secondary star was pretty dim and hard to see. It lay more or less due west of the primary star - ie: the direction of drift with an undriven mount.

Prior to this only my 130mm triplet had managed to give me the split so I was delighted to get it with the 100mm Tak.

 

Edited June 16, 2021 by John

[Saganite]

On 12/06/2021 at 00:40, John said:

Older thread revival !

I've just managed a split of Antares with my 100mm refractor. Position angle and relative brightness of secondary star looked correct. Given it's low altitude here I was surprised tonight how steady and well defined the image of Antares was. The secondary star (magnitude 5) looked very dim by comparison. The split is 2.6 arc seconds but it is the low altitude and major brightness difference between the stars that makes it such a tricky split. The mag 5 star was approximately due west of Antares.

Nice result and not one I was expecting

Edit: should have also mentioned that I was using 225x and 257x magnification.

 

 

Well that is very encouraging John.  I have, within a couple of miles from where I live, a ridge which gives a fine view of the Southern horizon and I had wondered whether it was worthwhile taking my Vixen ED up there to try to achieve the split of Antares, something I have never attempted. Your post gives me hope that it is indeed worthwhile.

[John]

20 minutes ago, Saganite said:

Well that is very encouraging John.  I have, within a couple of miles from where I live, a ridge which gives a fine view of the Southern horizon and I had wondered whether it was worthwhile taking my Vixen ED up there to try to achieve the split of Antares, something I have never attempted. Your post gives me hope that it is indeed worthwhile.

If you can catch a period of nice steady seeing, I'm sure that the Vixen will deliver Steve.

 

[Saganite]

2 minutes ago, John said:

If you can catch a period of nice steady seeing, I'm sure that the Vixen will deliver Steve.

 

Thanks John.  After good seeing last evening, it is set to end tonight with 5 days of rain, but I will persevere, as Antares has always been a target of desire, if one that I have ,perhaps ,felt unattainable.

[Saganite]

Bang on cue, 10pm , according to the Met Office, the wet stuff is falling ( precipitation if you wish to be posh... )

Edited June 16, 2021 by Saganite

[John]

8 minutes ago, Saganite said:

Bang on cue, 10pm , according to the Met Office, the wet stuff is falling ( precipitation if you wish to be posh... )

It started about an hour ago here.

My other half tells me that the garden needs it though .....

[Saganite]

It does John, no getting away from it , and, as Waterer-in -Chief, I am spared !

[IB20]

3 hours ago, John said:

That is a truly splendid result assuming that you are at around my latitude (Bristol-ish) rather than much further south.

With my Tak FC100-DL, which has superb optics, the secondary star was pretty dim and hard to see. It lay more or less due west of the primary star - ie: the direction of drift with an undriven mount.

Prior to this only my 130mm triplet had managed to give me the split so I was delighted to get it with the 100mm Tak.

 

You have me doubting myself now but I’m fairly certain it was a split, despite its micro-event nature. It is an incredibly tricky target and out of everything I’ve ever viewed I’d say it’s the most optically illusion friendly. I must have seen the companion star a handful of times throughout multiple sessions, or did I?! Not quite as exaggerated as the attached image (not mine) but I usually see it by colour rather than as a split but passing through so much atmosphere it perhaps could just be artefact. I’ve read about using blue or green filters to reduce glare of the primary but this can increase artefact too and lead to a “false positive split”. The brain almost certainly likes to fill in gaps occasionally too especially if it knows what it should be looking for. 

I’ve tried another difficult double in uneven magnitude in Sirius & pup, I’ve never even got close to either observing or imagining the split so do think I am achieving success with Antares.

Antares is optimally placed for me at 11° so plenty more opportunities for me to continue observing it. Scorpius in general is a wonderful constellation, I haven’t attempted M4, Jabbah, Rho Ophiuchus and many other targets yet. It’s a shame we aren’t treated to more of it in the UK.
 

[chiltonstar]

Exceptional seeing here (Oxford area) last night with Antares visibly twinkling less than usual, so I had my first serious try to split it this year. The secondary emerged from the glare of the primary for about ten percent of the time (180 Mak), appearing as a dot in the halo of the primary. Best mag was about x180, and the view was slightly better with a neutral density filter which reduced the halo a bit. I've seen it better once or twice in previous years, but it was at least a split. Maybe the Moon helped, as it sometimes does when splitting a difficult double such as Sirius.

When Antares disappeared behind a roof, I looked at some of the more challenging doubles in Cygnus; both Lambda and Delta Cyg were split fairly easily, with nearby Epsilon Lyrae taking mag up to about x400, showing a stable Airy disk and diffraction pattern.

Chris

 

[John]

Well done Chris

I managed to get the split again with my 100mm refractor at 225x and 257x earlier this week as mentioned here:

As I said in that post, I've found that Antares from the UK, at it's low altitude can present a slightly misleading appearance due, I think, to atmospheric disperson. This "dual colour" primary star presentation can mask the real secondary which I think is more or less due west of the primary and actually appears quite faint.

I'm sure you got the "real deal" though, with your experience, scope and observing conditions

 

[chiltonstar]

1 hour ago, John said:

Well done Chris

I managed to get the split again with my 100mm refractor at 225x and 257x earlier this week as mentioned here:

As I said in that post, I've found that Antares from the UK, at it's low altitude can present a slightly misleading appearance due, I think, to atmospheric disperson. This "dual colour" primary star presentation can mask the real secondary which I think is more or less due west of the primary and actually appears quite faint.

I'm sure you got the "real deal" though, with your experience, scope and observing conditions

 

Yes, there is always an atmospheric dispersion artefact, usually E or SE of the primary, but this is blurred and doesn't focus to a point, whereas the secondary is nearly due W and does. On previous occasions, I've used my ADC which has cleaned up the primary a lot and removed the artefact, although I didn't last night as I had such a brief observing window because of A's location.

Chis

[IB20]

Antares is back in the sky soon, can’t wait to have a pop at it with the Tak 76DC, may even pick up the Q module. 🔭

Haven’t seen @John post for a while, hope everything is OK, he’s a great contributor to the forum.

[Geoff Barnes]

17 hours ago, IB20 said:

Haven’t seen @John post for a while, hope everything is OK, he’s a great contributor to the forum.

He tells me he's fine, just taking a break from posting. Do miss his valuable knowledge on here! 🙂

[Pixies]

On 14/04/2022 at 12:03, Geoff Barnes said:

He tells me he's fine, just taking a break from posting. Do miss his valuable knowledge on here! 🙂

Phew! I was a little worried. Hope all is well.

[Mr Spock]

Anything that low is a challenge here. I'll give it a go with the 12" though when it comes into view.