Zeta Bootis Head Splitter

[Sunshine]

Ah Zeta Bootis, trained my glass eye on this wonder just a couple of nights ago while observing doubles but, it is not a double! or is it? I won’t look up any more doubles without first doing some reading. 
 

It was a night of decent seeing this past Friday, steady atmosphere and fairly good transparency, I spent a good two hours enjoying doubles with the highlight being the long awaited double double in Lyra. It was Zeta Bootis that I cannot recall seeing before or I would not have bothered, instead I spent an hour trying to split an inseparable pair visually as stated by SkySafari. It turns out this pair are special in their orbital superlatives, their eccentricity takes them from 1.4 AU to 64 AU!! wow, this is an ellipse which has been stretched like a rubber band. 
 

As it turns out, their closest approach occurred last in 1897 and again now in 2021, just in time for a foolish double hunter by the name of Eddie to spend an hour splitting his head open trying to split the impossible pair, just my luck. After looking at them at the edge of my 102’s ability in terms of magnification and then a bit, I was floored by how these two nearly identical class A2 giants (according to SkySafari) look like one star at the eyepiece. 

[John]

According to the Stella Dopie database the split is currently .25 of an arc second !

 

[Voyager 3]

Redbetter in CN with his 20" obsession got an elongation !

Forgot to add the link 

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/771062-unexpected-zeta-bootis/

Edited May 25, 2021 by Voyager 3

[rl]

I followed this star during the 1980s with a 5" achromatic refractor until it got too close to split..somewhere roundabout 1992 I recall. I remember it appearing as a figure-of-eight with a waist at that time at about 0.9 arcseconds. It's one of only a handful of doubles where I've seen a change in my observing career. If someone can split it now with a 20" Newt that would be testament to both the scope and the observing site!

[John]

1 hour ago, rl said:

I followed this star during the 1980s with a 5" achromatic refractor until it got too close to split..somewhere roundabout 1992 I recall. I remember it appearing as a figure-of-eight with a waist at that time at about 0.9 arcseconds. It's one of only a handful of doubles where I've seen a change in my observing career. If someone can split it now with a 20" Newt that would be testament to both the scope and the observing site!

One where I've noticed a change, in position angle at least, is Zeta Herculis:

[Sunshine]

1 hour ago, John said:

One where I've noticed a change, in position angle at least, is Zeta Herculis:

Great sketch of Zeta Herc, funny because this double was my next target after Zeta Bootis and I notice my observations match perfectly with your first 2016 sketch.

This matches what I saw perfectly at about 300x or so, identical position within the airy disc, I remember thinking it resembled a snake which had swallowed something big.

Edited May 25, 2021 by Sunshine