Time to get serious about Sirius

[John]

35 minutes ago, Nik271 said:

I had a similar experience as @Waddensky last night with 180 SW Mak:  The disc size of Sirius was well controlled most of the time and a couple of times I thought I saw a fleeting pinpoint north-east but it did not reoccur regularly enough to be sure.

I believe 250-300x is the right magnification to use in my scope: Sirius B is almost 9-th magnitude and being low in the sky atmospheric extinction will make it even dimmer. And magnification larger than 300 will make it just too dim. Magnification 250x should make 11'' separation appear as 44' in the eyepiece, so hopefully wide enough to separate from the glare. I'm still waiting for the perfect night to see the Pup🤞

 

I managed to see the Pup star with my 12 inch scope at 199x, 265x and 338x a couple of nights back so your range is about right I think. 265x (6mm eyepiece with my dob) does the best job.

Last night I did have a try with my ED120 refractor but the seeing here was unsteady - even somewhat easier pairs were tricky

Edited February 13, 2021 by John

[John]

I came across this interesting article by Phil Plait on Sirius which is worth a read

https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/why-so-sirius

[Mr Spock]

I tried last night but seeing was so bad Sirius at x200 was the size of the moon lol

[Space Hopper]

It was even worse here.....!!

A typical UK night really, poor seeing, poor transparency and enough dew to water the garden.

Sirius looked like a disco glitter ball. Literally. I almost laughed out loud.

No chance of seeing Trap 'E' and 'F' (A - D were very murcky using 163x mono with Tec140)

Rigel B was just there but not very good.

Then as i was packing up, i looked upwards towards the moon.....

 

[RobertI]

Still might have time to try the pup before it goes. My main scopes are a C8 SCT, 150PL newt and a 102mm ED frac (sadly my 130P is out on loan) - I was thinking the 150PL is probably my best bet for spotting the pup - what do people think?  

[John]

1 hour ago, RobertI said:

Still might have time to try the pup before it goes. My main scopes are a C8 SCT, 150PL newt and a 102mm ED frac (sadly my 130P is out on loan) - I was thinking the 150PL is probably my best bet for spotting the pup - what do people think?  

Any of them could get the Pup but I would think that the 150PL, in good collimation, might be the best bet.

My 130mm refractor showed it quite well tonight at 200x and above.

 

[RobertI]

7 hours ago, John said:

Any of them could get the Pup but I would think that the 150PL, in good collimation, might be the best bet.

My 130mm refractor showed it quite well tonight at 200x and above.

 

That’s great, thanks John. 👍

[Jiggy 67]

Error 

Edited February 26, 2021 by Jiggy 67

[Kon]

Following the discussion in this thread , I thought to give a try to see the Pup tonight (I tried the other night but it was apparent I did not). I used by 8" Dob with an 8mm BST with and without a 2x Barlow. Sirius was flickering with some colour but it seemed better than the other night, more stable. Every so often I could see a flickering of light coming through around 11 o'clock relative to Sirius in my EP. I could see that better without the barlow.  Is that the Pup? Can I tick it as seen?

[Pixies]

1 hour ago, Kon said:

Following the discussion in this thread , I thought to give a try to see the Pup tonight (I tried the other night but it was apparent I did not). I used by 8" Dob with an 8mm BST with and without a 2x Barlow. Sirius was flickering with some colour but it seemed better than the other night, more stable. Every so often I could see a flickering of light coming through around 11 o'clock relative to Sirius in my EP. I could see that better without the barlow.  Is that the Pup? Can I tick it as seen?

11 o'clock relative to your view in the dob?

[Kon]

1 minute ago, Pixies said:

11 o'clock relative to your view in the dob?

Yes, relative to looking down the EP (without correcting for N/S etc)..

[Pixies]

6 minutes ago, Kon said:

Yes, relative to looking down the EP (without correcting for N/S etc)..

I think it should be around 10 o'clock in real-world view. So 4 o'clock in eyepiece. Does that make sense?

Edited February 27, 2021 by Pixies

[Kon]

6 minutes ago, Pixies said:

I think it should be around 10 o'clock in real-world view. So 4 o'clock in eyepiece. Does that make sense?

Yes it makes sense. So the flickering could have been just some atmospheric disturbance more likely? I had a similar problem the other night. So back to trying again. Thanks.

[Pixies]

12 minutes ago, Kon said:

Yes it makes sense. So the flickering could have been just some atmospheric disturbance more likely? I had a similar problem the other night. So back to trying again. Thanks.

Sorry, man.

[Kon]

7 hours ago, Pixies said:

Sorry, man.

Not at all. It is part of the fun being out.

[Nik271]

I tried last night but the stars were twinkling even near the zenith. Sirius was dancing all over the place. Shame though because the air seemed still and transparency was good. DSO watching was ruined by the Moon so I just stayed out with binoculars checking carbon stars. La Superba was lovely and so was R Leporis.

UK is supposed to get a spell of high pressure which usually indicates good seeing. I will keep trying for the Pup over the weekend. Thinking of making an occulting bar at the fieldstop of my 10mm EP to block the main star.

Good luck to everybody who is chasing the Pup!

 

 

[Stu1smartcookie]

Loving this thread ... a really good read . It does highlight that no matter how good the equipment , the conditions usually win . I have achromat scopes and of course viewing Sirius is akin to watching a Russian variety tv show ie ...bling bling bling with lots of bright blues !(believe me i know lol ) However i am heartened by the fact that even smaller scopes can get "the Pup " .. although i haven't been successful yet. Thanks to Pixies for showing the orbit diagram , very helpful. 

[John]

At the current time, the Pup star follows behind Sirius A as it drifts across an undriven field of view. 

It does appear as a faint glimmering point of light which comes and goes with as the seeing varies.

The seeing and reducing light scatter around Sirius A are very important to spotting the Pup star.

 

 

Edited February 27, 2021 by John

[Pixies]

The Jetstream and higher levels of windspeed above the UK look good for tonight. Midnight tonight: 

Unfortunately, Sirus is not well placed for me just now. I need to build a tower in the back garden!

[RobertI]

I had a brief go myself last night with the 102EDR. Cranked the magnification up to around x300 but nothing was apparent  - I didn't look for long to be honest as the view was quite unpleasant. Might try with the 150PL tonight.

[John]

11 minutes ago, RobertI said:

I had a brief go myself last night with the 102EDR. Cranked the magnification up to around x300 but nothing was apparent  - I didn't look for long to be honest as the view was quite unpleasant. Might try with the 150PL tonight.

So far this year I've not seen it with my Tak 100mm or ED120mm. I've needed my 130mm refractor or 12 inch dob to do the job.

I'm sure the smaller apertures can do it but the challenge is just made that much more difficult because the airy disk and surrounding glare from Sirius A is a little larger and the glimmer from Sirus B a little fainter.

I'll try the ED120 tonight I think - working my way down the apertures !

[Marki]

Couldn't crack it in either my Tal125R achro or the SW Evostar 150ED refractors over the last two nights, despite pouring on the magnification. Anything over 250x-300x probaly didn't help to be honest, given the seeing and the lowish altitude and the fact Sirius lies adjacent to/over my neighbour's house from my view position.

I think I need to get out of town or wait for a really steady night.

 

Edited February 27, 2021 by Marki

[John]

10 hours ago, John said:

I'll try the ED120 tonight I think - working my way down the apertures !

Got the little blighter !

First time I've managed it with the ED120. Quite hard and I repeated the observation about 10 times with 2 different eyepieces to make sure. The "Pup" star was not consistently visible but was positively there during periods of the steadiest seeing.

I was motivated to sketch the view with the 3.5mm Pentax XW eyepiece at 257x (refractor plus mirror diagonal view):

 

[JeremyS]

45 minutes ago, John said:

Got the little blighter !

First time I've managed it with the ED120. Quite hard and I repeated the observation about 10 times with 2 different eyepieces to make sure. The "Pup" star was not consistently visible but was positively there during periods of the steadiest seeing.

I was motivated to sketch the view with the 3.5mm Pentax XW eyepiece at 257x (refractor plus mirror diagonal view):

 

Nice one John 👍🏻
it’ll be the FC 100 DL soon 🤞🏻

[RobertI]

Well done John!