Fall doubles

[Bigzmey]

11/9/19

I have been neglecting my doubles, but the full moon weekend provided opportunity to catch up. Here is my setup for the evening - Stellarvue 102ED on SW AzGTi mount – with rising Moon in the background. EP set: Vixen SLVs from 2.5mm to 25mm.

The mount is still work in progress. This time I have established that counterbalance does not make any noticeable difference in the accuracy of GoTo, tracking and stability. The good news is that after the saddle and tripod upgrades the mount handles ~10lb SV OTA quite well. Also, this session it managed to place a few targets close to the center of 2 deg FOV. Still, in the middle of the session it went berserk for no apparent reason. After re-booting and re-aligning it went back to “normal”. The only reason I tolerate all this nonsense is that with full Moon star hopping is no picnic either.

I love galaxies as the next guy, but man I also missed this: rich contrasting colors of star pairs, tiny silvery sparkle of a faint component next to burning bright main, two sharp airy disks separated by a hair. SV 102ED was made for this. Even tiniest stars are sharp, bright stars are clean, and even gray velvet of moon-washed sky looks refined. They also did a good job on my OTA. I can hardly see diffraction rings, they are so faint compared to the bright airy disks. Also, Vixen SLVs are perfect match for the premium SV 102ED optics. Highly recommend them for doubles splitting.

I started around 18:00 with Jupiter and Saturn (nothing special to report) and continued with doubles. Below are some highlights from the session. I have omitted trivial doubles and only listed challenging and nice-looking pairs.

Aquarius
4 Aqr AB – 6.4, 7.4, 0.8”, yellow pair – partial split. Basically, a pear-shaped airy disk. SLV 2.5mm (286x).
7 Aqr AB – 5.7, 11.4, 2.1”, orange main – partial split. Little pimple of the secondary on the airy disk of main. SLV 2.5mm (286x).
STF 2744 AB – 6.8, 7.3, 1.2”, yellow, blue – touching split, SLV 2.5mm (286x).
12 Aqr AB – 5.8, 7.5, 2.5”, yellow, white – clean split, SLV 2.5mm (286x).
STF 2755 – 6.9, 9.9, 25.4”, golden, blue – SLV 25mm (29x) to split, SLV 15mm (48x) for better colors.
STF 2787 – 7.5, 8.6, 11.4, ab 22.4”, ac 70.7”, white, blue, white - SLV 25mm (29x) for AB, SLV 9mm (79x) for AC.
Bet Aqr – 2.9, 11.0, 11.6, ab 37.6”, ac 61”, yellow, white, white – SLV 9mm (79x).
STF 2809 – 6.2, 9.4, 31.1”, white, blue - SLV 25mm (29x) to split, SLV 15mm (48x) for better colors.
STF 2838 – 6.3, 9.5, 16”, yellow, blue – SLV 15mm (48x) to split, SLV 9mm (79x) to define color of secondary.
29 Aqr – 7.2, 7.2, 3.8”, yellow pair – tight clean split with SLV 9mm (79x).
STF 2862 – 7.5, 8.4, 2.5”, uneven pair of yellow stars - tight clean split with SLV 6mm (119x).
41 Aqr AB – 5.6, 6.7, 5.2”, orange, yellow. SLV 9mm (79x).
53 Aqr AB – 6.3, 6.4, 1.3”, yellow pair – touching split, SLV 2.5mm (286x).
Zet 1 Aqr – 4.3, 4.5, 2.3”, lemon pair – tight clean split with SLV 4mm (179x).
STF 2913 – 7.8, 8.6, 8.4”, yellow, orange - SLV 15mm (48x).

Taurus
STF 406 – 7.6, 9.3, 9.1”, white, blue - SLV 15mm (48x).
STF 403 – 8.7, 8.9, 2.3”, white pair – clean split with SLV 4mm (179x).
STF 422 – 6.0, 8.9, 6.7”, yellow, blue - SLV 9mm (79x).
STF 430 – 6.8, 9.6, 10.4, ab 26.2”, ac34.3”, – neat triple - bright golden main flanked on two sides by silvery specs. SLV 15mm (48x).
STF 427 – 7.4, 7.8, 6.9” – white pair, SLV 15mm (48x).

Gemini
STF 889 AB – 7.6, 9.9, 21.3”, orange, blue - SLV 9mm (79x).
STTA 75 – 7.7, 8.9, 56.8”, yellow, blue - SLV 25mm (29x) to split, SLV 15mm (48x) for better colors.
STTA 74 AB – 7.1, 8.9, 56.8” – white, yellow - SLV 25mm (29x).
STF 899 – 7.4, 8.0, 2.1” – white pair – clean split with SLV 4mm (179x).

By midnight my phone, which I used to operate the scope from SkySafari, run out of juice and so did I.

[Juno16]

BAM!

Bigz, you sure scooped up a big pile of double stars! And dang, some at 286x!

Good for you and your good viewing skies! Wonderful evening and it looks like you were awfully successful in your binary quest!

Thanks for your fine report.

Jim

[notFritzArgelander]

Nice haul!

[Bigzmey]

Thanks Jim and nFA!

[Peter802]

Looks like you had a fruitful session in the end.
Thank you for sharing.

[John Baars]

What a nice report!
I liked the indication a "pear-shaped airy disk" for the very close 4 Aqr AB. This was at the very limit of the telescope. It shows us the quality of both seeing and telescope. The fact you could hardly see diffraction rings are proof of the excellency of the telescope too! Impressing! Very well done and thanks for your report. It was nice reading.

[helicon]

Great session Andrey. Haven't seen much in the past week due to soupiness of the skies. However, we may be subject to another power outage on Saturday night. I'm actually looking forward to it.

[Lady Fraktor]

A great doubles report Bigzmey, congratulations on a fine session.

[Bigzmey]

Looks like you had a fruitful session in the end.
Thank you for sharing.

A great doubles report Bigzmey, congratulations on a fine session.

Thanks Peter and Gabby!

[Bigzmey]

What a nice report!
I liked the indication a "pear-shaped airy disk" for the very close 4 Aqr AB. This was at the very limit of the telescope. It shows us the quality of both seeing and telescope. The fact you could hardly see diffraction rings are proof of the excellency of the telescope too! Impressing! Very well done and thanks for your report. It was nice reading.

Thanks John! I had a few sessions since I got SV 102ED but the seeing was never good. It was nice to finally see what the scope is capable of and it did not disappoint.

Great session Andrey. Haven't seen much in the past week due to soupiness of the skies. However, we may be subject to another power outage on Saturday night. I'm actually looking forward to it.

Thanks Michael! I hope you will get some nice skies soon. At the coast we have been getting fog and clouds every night, so going to the desert is the only way to get some observing done for me.

[10538]

What a fine session report Andrey and a great example of what can be accomplished on a night with a bright full Moon.

[fatboy1271]

Awesome report Bigz!!!

[Bigzmey]

What a fine session report Andrey and a great example of what can be accomplished on a night with a bright full Moon.

Awesome report Bigz!!!

Thanks guys!

[bladekeeper]

Nice doubles session, Andrey.

[terrynak]

Good to see you back into doubles Andrey!

I started getting into doubles earlier this year when I had my small 'fracs mounted on my Celestron Nexstar GOTO mount. At first it was just to test the optics on my scopes, but then they really piqued my interest.

[John Fitzgerald]

With a 5.7 magnitude difference and only 2.1 second separation, 7 Aqr is a very difficult double. I believe S.W. Burnham discovered it with much larger aperture, at Lick Observatory, possibly with the 36 inch refractor.

[John Fitzgerald]

I confirmed, from the original text, that the faint companion of 7 Aqr (BU 1034) was discovered with the 36 inch refractor and later measured with the 12 inch. It was described by Burnham as not difficult in the 36 inch.

[Bigzmey]

Nice doubles session, Andrey.

Good to see you back into doubles Andrey!

I started getting into doubles earlier this year when I had my small 'fracs mounted on my Celestron Nexstar GOTO mount. At first it was just to test the optics on my scopes, but then they really piqued my interest.

Thanks Bryan and Terry! Doubles are very rewarding targets, there are plenty for scope of any size and you can do them with Full Moon or from a city.

[Bigzmey]

With a 5.7 magnitude difference and only 2.1 second separation, 7 Aqr is a very difficult double. I believe S.W. Burnham discovered it with much larger aperture, at Lick Observatory, possibly with the 36 inch refractor.

Aha! I was wondering if anyone would spot it. If some one would post similar observation I would call upon it to.

Here is the full story: A trivial 7 Aqr AC (BU 1034 AC) was on my list, as always I checked if there any other components. I assumed AB would be beyond the limit of my scope and did not expect to split it, but since I was already there decided to give it a shot. To my surprise I saw a little bump on the airy disc of main. It was the night with best seeing of the year, I was enjoying perfectly round airy disks, this is why it caught my eye. I always check for PA AFTER the sighting, to be as unbiased as possible, and PA was right.

Now, split of target you already now has much more forgiven requirements compared to discovering a tight double de novo. Also, partial split leaves more room then a clean split. Finally, the advances in APO optics, coatings etc make premium modern scopes deliver sharper and contrastier images than the scopes of our forefathers.

I invite other sharp splitters to give BU 1034 AB a shot and report back what they see.