STF...?

[Llamanaut]

In the context of double stars what does STF stand for? For example the double star in Andromeda STF 108? It crops up several times... AQL STF 2449, CYG O STF 437....What is STF and where can i find out more about it?

[Llamanaut]

Ok, so i found out by myself....

Struve The Father. A star with the catalog designation STF### is a double star, with the number relating to a set of lists of double stars published by F.G. Wilhelm Struve in the early 1800s. Because these were discovered visually with the less optically-sophisticated scopes of that time, the angular separations of these doubles are large enough to be readily resolved in

amateur scopes. Thus, F. G. W. Struve’s double stars are among the first double stars

[Capricorn]

Any pointers to a list of these?

Just thinking they could be a good set for kids to locate since as you say eyes, binoculars or a small simple scope should do the job.

Still seems a strange designation Struve The Father?

[brianb]

Still seems a strange designation Struve The Father?

Blame the Internet (and computers with English/American keyboards), in days of old the designation for Struve's double star catalogue objects was the Greek capital sigma Σ

[Llamanaut]

does anyone know where i can find a list which equates the struve list with the hipparchus or ngc lists? Its a pig to find them otherwise

[lunator]

The STF list and NGC list won't match.

NGC generally for extended objects.

If you google the Washington double star list, this will take you a list of the 100,000+ doubles including all the Tycho & Hipp stars.

There are also notes showing how different labels match.

Cheers

Ian

[Llamanaut]

i googled the washington double star list and was immediatly bogged down by lists i couldnt make head nor tale of... any clues?

[lunator]

Rich

I'll break them down for you.

Cheers

Ian

[Llamanaut]

WDS frame

I think this is the link to the actual wds catalogue, however...

whats theta and rho? How do i find which wds number is which struve/ hip number and vice versa? how do i know which constellation theyre in? where do i start?

[Mr Spock]

θ is the angle and ρ is the separation.

Have you thought about using Cartes du Ciel? You can get the WDS for that, save wading through that huge list.

[Llamanaut]

ive had a go with it... the upgrade cduc 3.0 is much better but i still cant download any catalogues for it... maybe it hates me?

[Llamanaut]

ahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! ive found a fantastic site that not only downloads it but finds the correct files too! Im in!!!!!!! And happy!