A Great Night of Doubles

[Jiggy 67]

Sunday 21st November was a clear and relatively still night. It's starting to get cold now which really helps with the seeing but there was still a few tremors at higher magnifications. 

The Moon was scheduled to rise above the houses at about 9pm, but it was lighting up the eastern sky long before that so double stars were the project. I actually love the excuse of the moon because I love double stars so I decided on the SW 100ED with a plan to pack up early for work the following morning.

Before I started on the doubles I took a look at Jupiter which looked really nice with the 6.5mm Morph (x135 mag) with 4 moons in a row to the right. Can see banding when the image is still but not when the image quivers with the seeing. 4.5mm (x200 mag) with contrast booster made the bands stand out more. A very prominent dark band north of the centre but 4/5 others fainter bands could  be seen when the image steadied.

Onto the doubles:

30 Arietis. 6th magnitude in Aries. Easily split double star with the 20mm zoom (x45 mag). Two evenly matched white stars

1 Ari. 6th magnitude in Aries. Strange one this, because it appears to have a very wide separation ……if I’ve got the right star, everything fits on SkySafari except the separation, it may be that I have to revisit this one and split the primary (as I currently see it) though the primary does not appear to be a double which means my current experience would be correct. Two faint stars, the brighter one being white with a fainter blue companion at 1 o’clock. 8mm zoom (x112 mag)

6 Trianguli (Iota Trianguli). 5th magnitude in Triangulum. Beautiful double star, a real gem. A close pair split with the 8mm zoom (x112 mag) Vixen 4mm (x225 mag) shows a lovely pair of colourful stars. Primary is a yellow/white star with a pale blue 1/3 size companion at 4 o’clock. Lovely double star with quite a close split.

Pi Andromedae. 4th magnitude star in Andromeda. Another lovely double star easily split with the 8mm zoom (x112 mag) Bright white primary with a pale blue, dim, 1/5 size companion at 7 o’clock. Reasonably wide split at this magnification.

Shedar (Alpha Cassiopeiae). Magnitude 2 in Cassiopeiae. Bright white star with a 1/10 size pale blue and faint companion at 11 o’clock. Quite a wide separation. Lovely colour contrast between the two with the 8mm zoom (x112 mag)

Omicron 1 Cygni in Cygnus. This is an interesting one!! A double/multiple system which is confusing as a result of the number of stars in the field of view and the fact that none of them are actually related!! Through the zoom, at all focal lengths they produce a wonderful sight, almost an open cluster in their own right. 31 Omicron Cygni - A lovely bright orange star with a wide split to a 1/4 size pale blue star at 3 o’clock. 30 Omicron Cygni - A large, bright blue star at 8 o’clock to 31 Cyg. 32 Omicron Cygni - A bright star some distance from the other two. A lovely set of stars but I may have the designations the wrong way round. I really do recommend a look at the Omicron group for those that haven't yet observed it, it's well worth spending some time with.

Overall a very satisfying evenings observing, unfortunately cut short by the moon and work the next day.

 

 

[wookie1965]

Great list some really nice doubles there. 

[Zermelo]

23 hours ago, Jiggy 67 said:

Sunday 21st November was a clear and relatively still night. It's starting to get cold now which really helps with the seeing but there was still a few tremors at higher magnifications. 

The Moon was scheduled to rise above the houses at about 9pm, but it was lighting up the eastern sky long before that so double stars were the project. I actually love the excuse of the moon because I love double stars so I decided on the SW 100ED with a plan to pack up early for work the following morning.

Before I started on the doubles I took a look at Jupiter which looked really nice with the 6.5mm Morph (x135 mag) with 4 moons in a row to the right. Can see banding when the image is still but not when the image quivers with the seeing. 4.5mm (x200 mag) with contrast booster made the bands stand out more. A very prominent dark band north of the centre but 4/5 others fainter bands could  be seen when the image steadied.

Onto the doubles:

30 Arietis. 6th magnitude in Aries. Easily split double star with the 20mm zoom (x45 mag). Two evenly matched white stars

1 Ari. 6th magnitude in Aries. Strange one this, because it appears to have a very wide separation ……if I’ve got the right star, everything fits on SkySafari except the separation, it may be that I have to revisit this one and split the primary (as I currently see it) though the primary does not appear to be a double which means my current experience would be correct. Two faint stars, the brighter one being white with a fainter blue companion at 1 o’clock. 8mm zoom (x112 mag)

6 Trianguli (Iota Trianguli). 5th magnitude in Triangulum. Beautiful double star, a real gem. A close pair split with the 8mm zoom (x112 mag) Vixen 4mm (x225 mag) shows a lovely pair of colourful stars. Primary is a yellow/white star with a pale blue 1/3 size companion at 4 o’clock. Lovely double star with quite a close split.

Pi Andromedae. 4th magnitude star in Andromeda. Another lovely double star easily split with the 8mm zoom (x112 mag) Bright white primary with a pale blue, dim, 1/5 size companion at 7 o’clock. Reasonably wide split at this magnification.

Shedar (Alpha Cassiopeiae). Magnitude 2 in Cassiopeiae. Bright white star with a 1/10 size pale blue and faint companion at 11 o’clock. Quite a wide separation. Lovely colour contrast between the two with the 8mm zoom (x112 mag)

Omicron 1 Cygni in Cygnus. This is an interesting one!! A double/multiple system which is confusing as a result of the number of stars in the field of view and the fact that none of them are actually related!! Through the zoom, at all focal lengths they produce a wonderful sight, almost an open cluster in their own right. 31 Omicron Cygni - A lovely bright orange star with a wide split to a 1/4 size pale blue star at 3 o’clock. 30 Omicron Cygni - A large, bright blue star at 8 o’clock to 31 Cyg. 32 Omicron Cygni - A bright star some distance from the other two. A lovely set of stars but I may have the designations the wrong way round. I really do recommend a look at the Omicron group for those that haven't yet observed it, it's well worth spending some time with.

Overall a very satisfying evenings observing, unfortunately cut short by the moon and work the next day.

 

 

Nice report, are you aware of the (newly promoted) double star forum?

1 Arietis: I also viewed this one last night, it split in my Skymax 127 at x150 with a BCO.  SkySafari gives the separation as 2.9", though the PA is 165°; were you sure about 1 o'clock? (though it could be 1 o'clock if measured from the secondary) The next nearest star (in the SkySafari 'plus' database, at least) is HD11167, a huge 6'32.1" from 1 Ari. My notes from last night say that the dimmer star was slightly blue, so I'd say you probably did split it.  Personally I wouldn't call 2.9" a "very wide" separation, but perhaps you go after bigger fish than I do 🙂    

[Nik271]

I was recenly observing the Omicron group in binoculars. It's quite striking indeed, at low powers or in binoculars.

Nearby is a pretty carbon star, U Cyg with a yellow-white companion just  1' away, makes a striking contrast between the two colours.

[Jiggy 67]

26 minutes ago, Zermelo said:

The next nearest star (in the SkySafari 'plus' database, at least) is HD11167, a huge 6'32.1" from 1 Ari.

Yeh, I’m wondering if that is what I thought was the split or a similar nearby star, I’m gonna have to revisit it.

 I would normally have put this in the double star forum, don’t know why I didn’t on this occasion 😀

[Stu]

Moved to the Double Star forum 👍

Nice report 😀

[Mr Spock]

Great report. A really nice selection of doubles.

[Jiggy 67]

12 hours ago, Nik271 said:

Nearby is a pretty carbon star, U Cyg with a yellow-white companion just  1' away, makes a striking contrast between the two colours.

Thanks Nik, I’ve added this to my next observing list