Stupid newbie question : What is the fuss about splitting doubles ?

[Moonshane]

castor has a special place in my heart - the first double I ever 'split' and I always look forward to it every year. when you say all components, do you mean the two main stars and fainter orange companion a little more distanced?

[FraserClarke]

Wow, how on earth can anyone say with certainty that two stars are gravitationally linked with a period of thousands of years? Astonishing!

By measuring their positions, seeing how they move (over many years), and showing they are in orbit around each other.

And you can do that just by splitting some doubles with your telescope. cool huh!?

[valleyman]

Yes moonshine, but Albierio is my favorite with its beautiful colors.

[Moonshane]

cannot argue there! some other nice ones are Epsilon Bootis and Delta Lyrae.

[twotter]

I was observing Castor last night as well. Only managed to resolve into two stars as I only went down to 8mm using the zoom. It was only because I had a look in TLOI that I realised it was anything other than a normal star

[John]

Orion has some nice multiple stars. Rigel with it's mag 6.7 companion, Sigma Orionis (just below the lowest belt star) which has 5 components, 4 of which are readily visible on a decent night then the famous Trapezium embedded in M42 with it's 4 bright components and the challenging E & F stars close by.

[EntropyStar]

My 2p's

At first I wasn't that fussed about seeing stars, let alone doubles but time has changed that. My first double was the Mizar / Alcol pairing, I was so impressed to split them in my (then) awful telescope. I spent the better part of an hour trying to find the thing's (I had no finderscope and the worst mount going) and when they popped into the view piece the relief was almost palpable. As others have mentioned; doubles are a great attraction for those with LP problems. Also they're one of the few places in our hobby (in the visual sense) you can see colour), especially good for impressing friends and family who haven't the 'knack' of appreciating dull whispy grey smudges...aka DSO's.

When you get used to seeing doubles they then start to stand out even more and it can often be really enjoyable to go out observing with no specific target of choice, and simply sweep the heavens. Even a few mins pointing your scope in random directions will result in some doubles, possibly even triples.

With Albeiro being quite low in the evening winter sky now (I have 20 min window before it's too low for me) I'd recommend giving Almach (Gamma Andromedae) a go (lovely colours) and in Orion I recommend Sigma Orionis, a pleasing multiple star system that looks like a planet with moons orbiting it. That ones really easy to find. Look for the bright star beneath the left (Alnitak) star of Orion's Belt.

The Double Double is cliche, but for a reason! I don't enjoy it that much to look at, but it's great for testing your telescope and on a mysty eyed approach it's mind numbing to think of distances involved to those stars orbiting each other so 'closely'; and you can see that from your garden light years away.