Eight Doubles With A Triplet

[cloudsweeper]

Saturday, 6.35pm – clear, still, cold – Sirius and a few others on show.

For a change, I used the excellent compact, widefield ES ED80 Triplet (on GoTo) to get crisp views of some doubles in Orion (not too close or faint).  (Widefield and GoTo is a great mix – one-star alignment always puts the target well in view!)

17/Rho Ori - 4^th & 8^th mags, 6.8” separation

Started as usual with x20/4.10deg.  Primary clearly orange.  Up to x60 – secondary at 2 o’clock, close, very faint.

Σ688 - 7^th mags, 11”

SAO not in the handset, so went via 150420.  x60 – pair of eyes, close, faint, matched.

Σ700 - (2)+1, 7^th mags, 4.9”

Busier field.  Target at bottom of line of three.  x60 – sec. at 12 o’clock, very close, faint, matched – lovely.

Benavides (Bvd) 50 - 8^th mags, 31”

SAO not in handset, went via 18 Ori.  Stayed with x20 – target the lowest point of a triangle, “eyes” again, very close and faint, matched – beautiful.

Σ766 - 7^th & 8^th mags, 10”

Busy field, many faint stars.  At x48, side by side again, very close, faint and very faint.  Again, lovely.

Σ855 - 5^th & 6^th mags, 29”

Stayed at x20.  Very clear split, fainter sec. at 4 o’clock.

43/Theta 2 Ori - (2)+1, 5^th & 6^th mags, 52”

Target in M42, below and east of the Trapezium.  Magnification up to x48 – line of three, decreasing in mag to east – the binary was the western “A” star (prim.) and middle one, “B”.  Wide separation, mismatched.  Seen these many times, but never considered their status!  [CDSA and Haas list these A and B stars, while other sources have the third in line as the “C” star of the group.  Line of sight rather than physical?]

Finished after just over an hour of great satisfaction.  Viewing doubles – even “easy” ones at low magnification – is a great source of pleasure.

Doug.

 

[Jiggy 67]

3 hours ago, cloudsweeper said:

SAO not in handset

Nice set of targets......Have you considered inputting the RA and DEC in the handset?....I’m sure you have 

[Mr Spock]

Some nice observations there. So many lovely doubles to choose from !

[cloudsweeper]

1 hour ago, Jiggy 67 said:

Nice set of targets......Have you considered inputting the RA and DEC in the handset?....I’m sure you have 

Thanks - Yes, I have, but it's just that SAO numbers are easier to remember and enter.  So I look for a close, bright star on Stellarium and take it from there.

Doug.