Christmas Eve Session

[Jiggy 67]

Christmas Eve evening was a perfectly clear and crisp night so before settling in to a movie and a scotch (or two) I decided to do a couple of hours. The moon was at about 80% and high in the SouthEast moving towards the South so double stars were the targets of choice, I'm not complaining, I've developed a bit of a love affair with double stars, some of them compare well with epic DSO's. Another reason I like double stars is that i can get away with using nothing but the Baader zoom and occasional barlow......no swapping ep's!! 

Iota Cassiopeia

Strange one (These are my notes, made at the time. I have no idea why I wrote "strange one" have to remember to explain myself when writing notes).  Brilliant white primary with a much fainter secondary at 6 o’clock, faint and dark grey colour. Also able to split the primary with 8mm zoom and barlow (x281 mag), very close to the primary, very small but bright star at 2 o’clock, barely separated from the primary and only observable when fleeting good seeing allows. Made for a very nice triple.

 

Archird

Nice double with 8mm zoom but can be split with all zoom focal lengths. White primary with much smaller lilac secondary at 4 o’clock  

Theta 1 Tau

Very wide split. Two equally bright stars of equal size. Easy with zoom 24mm (x41 mag)

HD37013

Nice, reasonably tight double with 8mm zoom (x125 mag). Off white primary with an off white, slightly smaller secondary, very close at 11o'clock

Castor

Beautiful and bright double star. Very bright white primary with an equally bright and white but slightly smaller secondary at 5 o’clock. Easily split with 8mm zoom (x125 mag) but attractively close together.

 

Orion was now rising above the neighbour's house so I moved my attention there. I think it @John that mentioned recently in another post just how much there's to see in Orion, other than the obvious......I have to agree, you are literally falling over double and multiple star systems in this constellation!!

 

Mintaka

Lovely double split at all zoom focal lengths. Bright white primary and a fainter blue companion at 7 o’clock some distance away. Primary also a binary but unable to split even with 8mm zoom plus barlow (x281 mag)

The view of the night was Sigma Orionis......literally stunning!!!.....

Sigma Orionis

Beautiful quadruple system with a large white primary and 3 other stars of mixed colour. Two closest stars, faint and bluish and a bright, whiter star at 5 o’clock. Very nice at 8mm zoom plus barlow (x281 mag) Also in the same field of view at x281 mag, another binary system, HD 294271 (recorded separately). Very satisfying to get two multiple star systems in the same fov at such high magnification

HD294271

Nice double star, both faint and white but split easily at all focal lengths of the zoom. Most pleasing about this is that it can be seen in the same fov at high magnification, 8mm zoom plus barlow (x281 mag) as Sigma Origins, another multiple star system (recorded separately) making for a nice high powered view.

 

A very nice couple of hours and I only really came in because it started getting very cold....ice was forming on the scope......and it was Xmas leave and time for a very nice Glenmorangie

Merry Xmas everyone

 

[Nik271]

Nice report, enjoyed reading it! You had a lovely treat for Christmas. Theta Orionid is a real jewel of a star system, I always pay it a visit when visiting Orion. 

I didn't know that Mintaka has another close companion. I checked with stelle doppie and it lists the companion at .3'' separation! No wonder you couldn't see it. I wonder who discovered this one and whether it was visual or photographic.

Another great and relatively challenging close double is Alnitak. For me it's a good test of conditions, with a 5 inch Mak I only see it about 20% of the time. If the stars are twinkling I don't even bother.

And while in Orion let's mention Rigel, again a good test of seeing conditions. I usually have to wait until its close to the meridian to see the dim companion but it's always very rewarding.

With the full moon later this week and the planets absent let's enjoy the double stars! The weather forecast looks a bit better than recently.

Clear skies!

Nikolay

 

[ScouseSpaceCadet]

Great report Jiggy. The Christmas Eve night sky here was brilliant. Unfortunately life conspired against me and it wasn't to be, except when putting the bins out, I paused to look up and around taking it all in for a bit before dragging myself back in. 🤕

Let's hope the coming months provide us with a few more nights like that.