Double dilemma....

[Rosanella]

I'm simply fascinated by double and multiple star systems that grace our visible universe, and I have a small collection of pictures taken by robotic telescopes. BUT, I'm getting really restless and frustrated as I'd like to do more than just taking a pretty picture .

What else can I do with all these pictures other than staring in owe at their marvel, as I wish to actually learn more about these incredible giants of light, their stellar properties and interactions with their companions, to then purposefully contribute to the Science of Astronomy. But how to do that?

As I often read about stellar properties of double star, formulas crop up for working out spectroscopic distances,visual magnitudes, luminosity, and so on and so forth, which is all well and good and truly exciting Then, I close the book and ask myself 'what's the use of my learning formulas when there's nothing to apply them too? '

Any thoughts, ideas?

[kniclander]

wow - I just like to look at them :shock:

I think what could be good would be to pick presumably some widely spaced doubles and watch how the separation changes over time - I'm sure there is a sort of micrometer that you can attach to an eyepiece to measure it - I'm not excatly sure if any of them move quick enough to actually see the change but it would be interesting to find out...

dan

[lunator]

HI Rosanella

There is plenty you can do on variable and double star observing.

My interest in doubles covers 3 areas (beyond looking and sketching).

The areas are

1- Measuring doubles - I use a Celestron Microguide Eyepiece. This is easy to do and it really helps the pro's.

2- Finding Neglected Doubles - There are many neglected pairs that need to be confirmed as existing or not.

3- Orbit calculation - This does take a bit of maths but it is not too difficult.

I would look at the Washington Double star website and request an observing list.

Cheers

Ian

[Merlin66]

If you have access to a telescope and webcam, then I'd suggest seeking out double stars within your telescopes ability, AstroPlanner software is a good program which will allow you to make up ( and record) observing lists based on brightness and/ or separation.

Florent Losse ( florent_losse(at)yahoo.fr) has a free mailware program which allows you to measure separations from images and do some analysis.

I assume you've already read Paul Couteau's book " Observing Visual Double Stars".

[Rosanella]

Hello everyone

HI Rosanella

... 3- Orbit calculation - This does take a bit of maths but it is not too difficult.

I would look at the Washington Double star website and request an observing list.

Cheers

Ian

I don't mind the maths. After a year of pure Mathematics (pure hell, that is :shock: ) with the Open University, I'm craving for applying it to real situations and make good use of it in my astronomical work

The Washington Double star website? Is it this one http://ad.usno.navy.mil/wds/wds2001.html ?

If you have access to a telescope and webcam, then I'd suggest seeking out double stars within your telescopes ability, AstroPlanner software is a good program which will allow you to make up ( and record) observing lists based on brightness and/ or separation.

Florent Losse ( florent_losse(at)yahoo.fr) has a free mailware program which allows you to measure separations from images and do some analysis.

I assume you've already read Paul Couteau's book " Observing Visual Double Stars".

I don't own a telescope because it would be too much of a hassle, as I get around with sticks and wheelchair (it's ok, you wouldn't have known that). So, the only telescopes I can work with are the robotic ones.

I did not know about Paul Couteau's book. Thank you for that

[lunator]

Hi Rosanella

The second and third areas I mentioned above are available.

There are many neglected doubles that are too far south to be observed from the UK but using the robotic scopes you may be able to track them down and confirm or deny their existence there is a list of neglected doubles on the WDS site

http://ad.usno.navy.mil/wds/wdstext.html#neglected

I used Bob Argyle's book 'Observing and Maeasuring Visual Double Stars' to learn the orbit calculation and analysis.

I hope this helps

Cheers

Ian

[Rosanella]

Hi Rosanella

The second and third areas I mentioned above are available.

There are many neglected doubles that are too far south to be observed from the UK but using the robotic scopes you may be able to track them down and confirm or deny their existence there is a list of neglected doubles on the WDS site

http://ad.usno.navy.mil/wds/wdstext.html#neglected

I used Bob Argyle's book 'Observing and Maeasuring Visual Double Stars' to learn the orbit calculation and analysis.

I hope this helps

Cheers

Ian

I've just ordered Bob Argyle's book on Amazon (I couldn't resist it for just over £10 new ).

Thank you all for your advise :-)