Zeta Her Split Like Coconut!

[Sunshine]

Oh boy! this night seeing was something special, truly! from the moment I dropped an eyepiece in and turned my refractor to Arcturus I knew tonight was special. One of those nights where stars look as though they're just hanging in the black sky without a shimmer or shake, just perfectly still diffraction rings, unrealistically still. On nights such as these I always remember my nemesis Zeta Her, which for a 4" is always a challenge, maybe not so much for those with hulking APO's but for a 4" it can be daunting.  Starting with 230x and still a perfect unwavering star I rushed for FULL POWER! my pulse increased as I fumbled my 5mm into my 2.5x powermate for 100x per inch, very few night are such powers feasible. Hanging there in the inky black was a beautiful sharp dot with a faint airy disc like a halo, and right there at 10 o'clock was an unmistakable dot! not a peanut or a dancing blob but a dot. If you love doubles as much as I you would understand my childlike excitement over such a dot, my scalp shrunk and got tingly over the whole affair. It must have been 20 times that I watched that star drift across the FOV at breakneck speed but I could have watched it all night, frankly. Bed time was near and I packed up my scope but tonight I go to bed thinking about two wonderful dots.

 

[RobertI]

Amazing! We astronomers live for those special moments don’t we? Sounds like Zeta Hercules was the perfect test for the 4” - truly memorable by the sound of it. 🙂 Checking back on my observing log, I have also struggled to see this with my 4” refractor with nothing more than a suspected brightening of the diffraction ring. With my 150 Newt I had more success, getting a clear view of the secondary, but it took excellent seeing and a magnification of 540x to achieve it! I will persevere with the refractor….

[Stu]

Excellent stuff @Sunshine 👍 Zeta Herc was my nemesis for literally years, I just thought I would never see it. It took a decent 8” to show it to me first, then I managed in six and four inch scopes. It sounds like you had fabulous views in the four inch though, to me it has largely just been a brightening on the first diffraction ring, with the occasional resolution into a star when observing with the smaller scopes. Larger have shown me the two resolved properly, but it’s all down to the seeing as you say.

Thanks for the report 👍👍

[Knighty2112]

A great, rare night. Well done in spotting this double. Can’t remember if I’ve tried for this taget, but I’ll add to my list of doubles and see which one of my ‘fracs manage to crack it if seeing allows. 

Edited September 7, 2022 by Knighty2112

[Sunshine]

9 minutes ago, Knighty2112 said:

crack it if seeing allows. 

Well if I managed to split it like a coconut then you can crack it like a egg! 😂

[davehowat]

Fab ,well done ,the great grey has returned to Scotland .can't wait till sky clears

[AstroMuni]

6 hours ago, Sunshine said:

Oh boy! this night seeing was something special, truly! from the moment I dropped an eyepiece in and turned my refractor to Arcturus I knew tonight was special.

Looks like you really enjoyed this great experience and your writeup made it feel like reading a thriller and I felt I was there sharing your moments!