Castor

[bombassa]

Got some eyetime tonight and spent it on m36, m37, m38 and Castor.

I read that Castor consists of two stars that are both spectroscopic doubles and it has a small double companion as well.

So six stars but visually three should be apparent? I only managed to get two.

Am I understanding this correctly?

Cloudy now... Hope you all got some time as well.

[John]

Lucky you to get some views tonight - all clouded out here.

I've not seen Castor as anything other than a nice double in scopes up to 12" aperture .

[Chris H]

Yes that's correct, see this here MPL3D : Photos

The two brightest stars are very bright and the glare makes it difficult to see the small stars.

[bombassa]

Yes that's correct, see this here MPL3D : Photos

The two brightest stars are very bright and the glare makes it difficult to see the small stars.

Difficult but not impossible?

I was at 130x and could clearly see the two main stars.

[Izar]

I but visually three should be apparent? I only managed to get two.

Am I understanding this correctly?

The third companion © is a 9th magnitude red dwarf star that is situated about 1 arc-minute away from the two brighter stars (A and B ). This red dwarf companion © is itself an eclipsing binary star known as YY Gem. I observed the 3 stars (A,B,C) last week with my 60mm refractor. The third star is visible with your scope, you just need to be looking further away from the two brighter components. Hope this helps.

[bombassa]

The third companion © is a 9th magnitude red dwarf star that is situated about 1 arc-minute away from the two brighter stars (A and B ). This red dwarf companion © is itself an eclipsing binary star known as YY Gem. I observed the 3 stars (A,B,C) last week with my 60mm refractor. The third star is visible with your scope, you just need to be looking further away from the two brighter components. Hope this helps.

Thanks. I will try again when weather permits.

Oh not tonight though..

Happy new year

[DarkerSky]

Yes, 3 stars is what you should see visually. I split A & B easily a couple of nights ago in my 12" at low power. Separation is about 4.6 arc seconds. C was a small distance to the south of the pair and took on a yellow / orange hue. At 9th mag it is much fainter, and flanked by two almost equally faint field stars.

[John]

... The third star is visible with your scope, you just need to be looking further away from the two brighter components. Hope this helps.

That's useful to know

That's the mistake I was making as well

[bombassa]

Think I found it.

Thank you everyone for your help and DarkerSky thanks for the sketch.