Some doubles

[Orange Smartie]

I made the most of the clear weather tonight to take a look at a few double and multiple stars.

I started in Canes Venatici with a nice easy one, alpha CVn - Cor Caroli.  This is a very easy split, appearing as a double at 30x magnification, but quite striking with the brighter blue-white primary and yellow secondary.  Since I was in the area, I thought I'd also take a look at the famously red star, La Superba, Y CVn.  Finding my way was complicated by the lack of guide stars, everything being washed out by the moon.  But I knew more or less where it should be and, sure enough, at low power with a bit of waving around (technical term) it appeared, gloriously orangey.  I took a quick detour by way of the Winter Albireo (love that double!) and then I thought I'd try to split some of the Cassiopeia multiples. 

Iota Cass is a triple, with the A/C component easily splitting at 94x.  The A/B just about separated for me using the same eyepiece with a 2x Barlow.  Struve 163 proved a nice easy split and was an interesting triple with orange/blue/blue components.   On to Achird, an easyish yellow/red double.  Burnham 1 proved a much more difficult challenge - even finding the star was tricky with the bright moon behind me.  I stuck at it and eventually, I think, found it - a fainter system of some 4 or 5 stars.  I'll revist when the moon is not so prominent to be sure I was in the right place.  Struve 3053 I found in spite of the lack of visible guide stars, as described in Turn Left at Orion, sitting in a line with 2 other stars.  The bluer secondary component was dimmer than I expected, almost overwhelmed by a brighter yellow primary.  Finally in Cassiopeia, I just about split sigma Cass at around 180x magnification.

Since I was pointing vaguely North, I tried Polaris - a new target for me - the secondary appearing very dim blue alongside a much brighter yellow/white primary.  At least this one doesn't keep drifting out of the field of view.....

Off to Orion and a quick look at sigma Ori, then three failures - 32 Ori, 52 Ori and eta Ori, all just out of my reach.  I'm fairly sure I was looking at the right stars, but it wasn't going to work for me given the conditions and my available eyepieces.  Never mind!  Rigel B, on the other hand, was just visible within the diffraction spike of my telescope at a modest 125x magnification.

Satisfied with what I'd seen, I had to finish on a really high note, so off to Leo and a quick look at the shining golden double that is Algieba (gamma Leonis).  All in all not a bad session.

Pete

 

[wookie1965]

Great haul there some great targets. Lovely read thank you for posting. 

[NGC 1502]

Excellent 👍

Even in bright moonlight from town doubles are great targets. My main resource is the Cambridge double star atlas version 2.   It’s also an excellent general purpose set of charts so if you can find a copy well worth tracking down.

Ed.

[Waddensky]

Great report, thanks! A wonderful selection of fine doubles. I almost always pay a visit to Algieba when I'm out, it never fails to impress me.

[wibblefish]

5 hours ago, NGC 1502 said:

Excellent 👍

Even in bright moonlight from town doubles are great targets. My main resource is the Cambridge double star atlas version 2.   It’s also an excellent general purpose set of charts so if you can find a copy well worth tracking down.

Ed.

This recently came back into stock on the Cambridge University Press site and I think Amazon as well, I was debating this or Interstellarium deep sky atlas (which is twice the price)  

Edited February 26, 2021 by wibblefish

[Zermelo]

A great selection. The multiple stars are very welcome when the moon is near full.  Have you seen beta Monocerotis yet? Well worth a look.
I bagged  a new one last night - 32 Eridani, a lovely coloured pair.

 

11 hours ago, Orange Smartie said:

three failures - 32 Ori, 52 Ori and eta Ori

Yes, I keep trying these with my 6". The best I've managed so far is that eta was clearly elongated but not split.  Nothing doing with the other two, but then they are well below 2" so I'm not surprised.

[Orange Smartie]

10 minutes ago, Zermelo said:

Have you seen beta Monocerotis yet? Well worth a look.
I bagged  a new one last night - 32 Eridani, a lovely coloured pair.

Beta Mon i have seen, yes, but it's one i like to go back to. 32 Eridani I have yet to see, so I'll add it to my list for this weekend - thank you!

When I started being interested in astronomy, I couldn't understand why multiple stars would be worth looking at, but they can be truly captivating can't they?

[Zermelo]

2 minutes ago, Orange Smartie said:

When I started being interested in astronomy, I couldn't understand why multiple stars would be worth looking at, but they can be truly captivating can't they?

 

Ditto.

[Waddensky]

38 minutes ago, wibblefish said:

This recently came back into stock on the Cambridge University Press site and I think Amazon as well, I was debating this or Interstellarium deep sky atlas (which is twice the price)  

The Interstellarum atlas displays position angle, separation and magnitude difference of double stars on the charts, which is quite convenient in the field - although I find the indicator lines a bit hard to distinguish in the dark. The Cambridge only has physical doubles - real binaries - if I recall corectly.

[AstroNebulee]

46 minutes ago, Orange Smartie said:

list for this weekend - thank you!

When I started being interested in astronomy, I couldn't understand why multiple stars would be worth looking at, but they can be truly captivating can't they?

Lovely report, I've just started looking at doubles thanks to @SuburbanMakand love looking at the contrasting coloured ones and getting a quick snap of them with my dslr. I'm going to ask as stupid question here but which star is the winter alberio. I love Iota cancera, clear skies. 

[Pixies]

12 minutes ago, LeeHore7 said:

Lovely report, I've just started looking at doubles thanks to @SuburbanMakand love looking at the contrasting coloured ones and getting a quick snap of them with my dslr. I'm going to ask as stupid question here but which star is the winter alberio. I love Iota cancera, clear skies. 

It's h3945 in Canis Major

There's also Iota Cancri - which is very similar and a  lot easier to observe for me, as it's much higher.

[Orange Smartie]

43 minutes ago, Pixies said:

I'm going to ask as stupid question here but which star is the winter alberio. I love Iota cancera, clear skies. 

Not a stupid question - my fault for not saying.  Thanks Pixies for the proper designation of this star.

[SuburbanMak]

2 hours ago, LeeHore7 said:

Lovely report, I've just started looking at doubles thanks to @SuburbanMak and love looking at the contrasting coloured ones and getting a quick snap of them with my dslr. I'm going to ask as stupid question here but which star is the winter alberio. I love Iota cancera, clear skies. 

@LeeHore7  thanks for the namecheck - I've only just started with them too so likewise this is a great report & some new targets to aim for!

I've seen a couple of stars referred to as the Winter Alberio - think it may be one of those "Venice of the North" type terms that gets used a lot - the main consensus does seem to be H3945/ CM145.  This image is fun though from @orion25

 

 

 

 

 

Here's a map of where H3945 is - last night I followed the "back leg" of Canis Major straight upward for about the same distance (+maybe 10%) with the RDF and this put it straight in the 24mm eyepiece of an ST80, would certainly have been in the Mak finder (I hope, going out with the heavier gear tonight!). 

[AstroNebulee]

Thanks @Pixies @Orangesmartie

 @SuburbanMak, that's a good to know and I'll certainly be looking for that one tonight, with the help of the canis major constellation image if the skies stay clear. The image you posted is a great one, as I said I find the contrasting doubles fun to find and make good images. I hope you enjoy taking the heavier gear out tonight and enjoy clear skies where you are. 

Edited February 26, 2021 by LeeHore7

[SuburbanMak]

2 hours ago, LeeHore7 said:

Thanks @Pixies @Orangesmartie

 @SuburbanMak, that's a good to know and I'll certainly be looking for that one tonight, with the help of the canis major constellation image if the skies stay clear. The image you posted is a great one, as I said I find the contrasting doubles fun to find and make good images. I hope you enjoy taking the heavier gear out tonight and enjoy clear skies where you are. 

Is looking pretty good here  

Clear skies to you too!

[Orange Smartie]

On 26/02/2021 at 11:18, Zermelo said:

I bagged  a new one last night - 32 Eridani, a lovely coloured pair.

Thanks for this tip. I managed to find this in spite of the moon. Primary looked yellowy white to my eyes, with a blue secondary. Lovely!