Spring Albireo!

[orion25]

An astronomer friend made me aware of a spring time Albireo in the constellation of Coma Berenices, 24 Comae Berenices (Struve 1657) to be exact.  It is approximately halfway between Denebola and Arcturus, just beneath Berenice's Hair.  I pulled out my 127mm Mak and gave it a look and was pleasantly surprised!  It is a beautiful blue-gold double, smaller and less bright than Albireo, but nonetheless striking.  It is a variable physical double of spectral types K0 and A3 with magnitudes of 5.2 and 6.7 respectively. It is actually a triple star system about 300 light-years away:

 

I made a composite of the blue/gold doubles I've imaged over the years, including Albireo, at the original image sizes to compare apparent star scales and distances between the stars:

If you haven't already, check out 24 Comae Berenices; it's worth a look!

Clear skies!

Reggie🤩

[Zermelo]

Yes, 24 Com is one of the best.

[Craney]

This is an excellent summary. Thankyou.    

Coloured doubles are a worthy challenge for imagers with long focal length rigs and non-narrow band cameras.   ( Always good to have targets for those Moon illuminated nights).

[Mr Spock]

Lovely images 👍

[orion25]

3 hours ago, Mr Spock said:

Lovely images 👍

Thanks, Michael!  

Edited April 30, 2022 by orion25

[orion25]

On 29/04/2022 at 05:05, Craney said:

This is an excellent summary. Thankyou.    

Coloured doubles are a worthy challenge for imagers with long focal length rigs and non-narrow band cameras.   ( Always good to have targets for those Moon illuminated nights).

You're very welcome, Craney! Thanks for looking  

[Gogleddgazer]

Great description and now added to my list of things to hunt down. The composite is a really good way to communicate the relative scales of these doubles. Thanks for taking the time to put it together.

J

[orion25]

On 07/05/2022 at 04:44, Gogleddgazer said:

Great description and now added to my list of things to hunt down. The composite is a really good way to communicate the relative scales of these doubles. Thanks for taking the time to put it together.

J

You're welcome, J! Have fun hunting down the Spring Albireo  

Reggie