A Great Time to View Sirius B

[orion25]

The elusive companion to the much brighter Sirius A is ideally positioned for viewing over the next few years as it approaches its maximum distance from our vantage point. I was able to easily split the pair with my Orion Mak 127mm, using the 6mm Expanse EP attached to the Meade Variable Polarizer to control the glare. Here is a blog with great tips for beginners and more advanced observers on viewing the mysterious Sirius B:

https://florin.myip.org/blog/how-see-sirius-b

Clear skies!
Reggie

[lenscap]

Thanks Reggie. There's a lot of good info in the linked article; well worth a read.

Now I just have to wait for some excellent seeing. Since I live in the UK that may take a while.  😊

[joe aguiar]

Good reminder hard to remember everything 

Joejaguar 

[John]

Nice "heads up"

The main challenge of this split from the UK is that Sirus does not rise that high in the sky.

That said, I've split it quite often with my 12 inch dobsonian, a few times with my 130mm triplet refractor and a couple of times last Winter with my Tak 100mm refractor.  I've found magnifications between 180x and 280x the most effective.

The seeing conditions need to bs reasonably steady to give the best chance of the split from here.

This is a sketch I did of Sirius as observed with my 12 inch dobsonian back in February this year:

 

 

[alan potts]

I have done this a good few times with various scopes I own, but from a better latitude than the UK. I played a game for a long time, seeing if I could split Sirius from what would be the max UK elevation. Only once managing this on a very good night when Sirius was at about maximum for southern UK, this was with an 18 Dobsonian, so that sort of shows me how difficult it can be, conditions being just about everything.

Alan

[Stu]

Must try to crack this one finally. Need to get either the Mewlon or 8" f8 down to our local site away from the houses as I think that is what kills it for me locally. I don't think the number of planes from Heathrow help much either. I managed Zeta Herc recently but only when it was high over head.

[Highburymark]

Thanks for posting this. Saw the pup from North Yorkshire once with Tak 4” but still waiting to see it from London after five years of trying. Couple of times thought I might have seen it fleetingly - but without almost perfect seeing it’s almost impossible to be sure

[Ruud]

Hi Reggie, congratulations on the observation of Sirius B. One day I hope to spot it myself.

Fortunately there's a few good years for Sirius B coming up. I'll need them: even Sirius A is elusive here. 

 ☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️
           🔭🎅

[orion25]

11 hours ago, Ruud said:

Hi Reggie, congratulations on the observation of Sirius B. One day I hope to spot it myself.

Fortunately there's a few good years for Sirius B coming up. I'll need them: even Sirius A is elusive here. 

 ☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️
           🔭🎅

Thanks, Ruud. You're right about Sirius being elusive for your latitude. I imagine it's very low on your horizon.

[orion25]

On 06/12/2019 at 18:13, John said:

Nice "heads up"

The main challenge of this split from the UK is that Sirus does not rise that high in the sky.

That said, I've split it quite often with my 12 inch dobsonian, a few times with my 130mm triplet refractor and a couple of times last Winter with my Tak 100mm refractor.  I've found magnifications between 180x and 280x the most effective.

The seeing conditions need to bs reasonably steady to give the best chance of the split from here.

This is a sketch I did of Sirius as observed with my 12 inch dobsonian back in February this year:

 

 

Great sketch, John. Thanks for posting 👍🏾

[timwetherell]

Yes tricky from the UK - all comes down to seeing. I've done it with relative ease a couple of times using a 7" scope but dozens of other times it's simply not there. I have an atmospheric dispersion corrector which helps a bit in removing the vertical fringing