Sirius Pup from London?

[vineyard]

Hello,

Noticing how clear the skies were at about 0045 last night, I did a quick visual setup.  It was really nice seeing stars (I put a Baader neodymium in to help) - it really just takes you away.

Sirius was just dazzling so I took a quick look at it.  Well actually, I'm returning to stargazing after so many decades that I didn't even know it was Sirius at the time - just something dazzling SW of Orion 😂.  So I pointed my 4" refractor at it and worked down from 15mm to 4mm.  And as I was doing that, I was thinking to myself, "this looks like a double, is it a double or am I just not focusing properly" with the double-y bit seeming to be at about 5 o'clock from the the brighter one.  I just left it at that and went to bed.

Looking at KStars this morning, I realised "oh that was Sirius" and then looking a bit more into Sirius (after being embarrassed that I couldn't even recognise the Dog Star I'm so rusty...) I saw various threads on the double and the Pup and even down to the position (ie, it's at 7 o'clock but obv that gets mirrored to 5 o'clock).

And so now I'm wondering did I actually see that last night, was it a dream 😂.  Did anyone else see the Pup last night or do I need to get my eyes tested?

Cheers,

Vin

[NGC 1502]

Hi Vin.

I’ve seen the Pup from Southend in Essex, same latitude as London, so Sirius culminates at the the same elevation.

This observation was early this year with my fully cooled and collimated 10” OO Dob with a regular 1/4 wave primary, using very high powers of 300x plus.   The Pup lies very close indeed to the primary and was definitely seen about 20% of the time during long minutes staring into the eyepiece in the variable seeing.  Using a Newtonian it’s possible the Pup can be lost in the diffraction spikes, of course a refractor doesn’t have that issue.  Fortunately the Pup was between the very bright diffraction spikes with my scope.

I have 2 refractors, 70mm Pronto and 80mm Vixen f11.4, they are both nice scopes but I do know they don’t split tight doubles as well as my 10” Dob.   Perhaps your larger refractor would do better than my 70 & 80mm.

Hoping that helps, Ed.

Edit - don’t worry, I’m watching the women’s footie at the same time as typing on here 😁

Edited November 9, 2019 by NGC 1502
Extra info

[vineyard]

Cheers Ed, that is helpful.  I've been checking other forums as well and yep it seems 102 apertures have been used to split the Sirius pair.  That was a v unexpected & v welcome gift from the heavens last night (it was fair dazzling above the roofs, twinkling away).

Gutting result on the football - I was watching the Wall and the couple on that too ended up wiping out, not a lucky evening tonight I guess.

Cheers,

Vin 

[DirkSteele]

Now is certainly the time everyone should be having a crack at the pup given it is currently around maximum separation from Sirius.

[Space Hopper]

Its on my hit-list Matthew. If it ever stops raining here that is.

I'm hoping my 140mm refractor will be able to tease it out.

I'm also after the E & F stars in M42 a bit to the right.

 

[John]

I've seen the pup star quite a few times with various scopes down to 100mm.

The Pup star follows the much brighter Sirius as it drifts across the field of view when no drive is used so it is to the east of the primary. It is around 10 arc seconds from the primary so about the same separation as Rigel.

I find that I need 200x plus to split Sirius.

Here is a sketch that I made some time back:

 

 

 

[chiltonstar]

That's a superb sketch John! 

From an urban location, I think the OP would need a night with excellent seeing, a clear line of sight that doesn't graze buildings or heat plumes, and for Sirius to be as high in the sky as possible. With these provisos, I think seeing The Pup is perfectly possible with a smallish 'frac - well done!

Chris

[Stu]

It's one I've yet to see in any scope sadly. Hoping to have a go with the 8" f8 this winter but will need to get away from home as observing over roof tops just kills the seeing. I think if it is twinkling strongly then observing the Pup is tough. I managed Zeta Herculis more recently when it was high overhead. I suspect (know!) my seeing here (near London and Heathrow) is not very good much of the time though.