Location: home,
Equipment: Stelarvue 102ED on
Half-moon was shining bright; but at least there were no clouds and low humidity, so I set to split a few doubles. Eridanus was perfectly positioned in the south. I love how much more open sky I have at the new home. However, in light pollution it was an empty area devoid of stars. I had to rely on Another effect of
When I observe I write notes with pen and paper. Next day (now
) I type the report to post on Eridanus doubles
HJ 3533 – 7.6, 8.2, 38”, orange, white – easy wide double, best viewed at low power. SLV 25mm (29x).
Theta1 Eri – 3.2, 4.1, 8.6” – what a beaty! Bright, pure white, close pair of uneven stars. SLV 15mm (48x).
Rho2 Eri – 5.4, 8.9, 1.4” – FAIL to split. Probably too ambitious for 4” refractor, need to revisit with the big guns.
HJ 3565 – 5.9, 8.2, 8.0” – fine double – cream-colored bright main with cool blue little sidekick. SLV 15mm (48x).
Tau4 Eri – 3.9, 9.5, 11.3, ab5.7”, ac38.2” – I thought AB is doable with 4” but could not achieve reliable split. AC was no problem, bright golden main with grey spec in some distance. SLV 4mm (179x).
STF 436 – 7.6, 9.2, 46.8” – wide but nice contrast – yellow main with little silver spec on side. SLV 25mm (29x).
Gamma Eri – 3.1, 12.0, 56.1” – at first glance just bright golden main. I kept pushing power until finally resolved faint grey little dot with averted vision (AV). SLV 4mm (179x).
SRT 2 – 5.8, 7.7, 61.7” – you would think white is white, but white stars come in so many halftones. In this case the main was neutral white and secondary was silver-colored. SLV 25mm (29x).
HJ 3628 – 7.2, 8.0, 50.2” – pair of tweens, grayish white. SLV 25mm (29x).
HJ 3632 – 7.8, 9.7, 10.9” – white main with small faint silvery companion close by. SLV 12mm (60x).
HJ 3636 AC – 3.9, 11.8, 49” – glowing white main with faint gray spec in a distance. SLV 12mm (60x).
HJ 3642 – 6.5, 8.7, 6.3” – bright white main with small silvery dot on the side. Close split with SLV 6mm (119x)
Red dwarf, white dwarf.
Dwarf stars are the most common type of stars in our galaxy. However, they are not easy to visualize with small scopes due to their low light output. Omicron 2 system has not just one, but two - red dwarf and white dwarf – bright enough to see. However, there is a catch.
Omicron2 Eri – 4.4, 10.0, 11.5, ab83.7”, bc9” – Main is a bright beautiful lemon-colored star. BC are easy to find wide apart from A. However, B and C appears as a faint single star at low powers. At high power split is doable with 4” refractor but require sharp optics and good seeing. I have already tried last year for no luck. This time sky cooperated, and I have achieved a tight but clean split with SLV 4mm (179x). B was of white color as supposed to, C was dark silver. 11.5 mag is just to dim to resolve any color but gray.
HJ 3644 AD – 6.2, 8.2, 44.1” – brighter white star with smaller dimer bluish companion. SLV 25mm (29x).
BU 1236 AC – 7.3, 9.0, 40.2”, gold, orange – wide pair with nice colors. SLV 25mm (29x).
62 Eri – 5.5, 8.9, 11.4, ab66.1”, ac127.1” – AB – wide pair of white unequal stars is easily located at low power (SLV 25mm, 29x). To resolve faint C against sky background had to push to high power. Bluish C became visible with SLV 6mm (119x).
STF 631 – 7.5, 8.8, 5.7” – white uneven pair. I like this kind of doubles. Nice tight split, but you don’t need to pop your eyes to resolve it.
SLV 6mm (119x).STF 636 – 7.1, 8.5, 3.6” – a bit tighter but also a bit better looking white uneven pair. SLV 6mm (119x).
That was a nice session. Hope to catch more winter targets if weather and life cooperate.
