Friday, October 21, 2016

some doubles in delphinus

It seems last night was to be the only chance for the rest of the week and weekend to observe, so I went out with the 12.5-inch to try some relatively close doubles in Delphinus.  Seeing and transparency were predicted to be better than they actually were: Pickering 6-7 by my eye.  Plus, Delphinus was tipping too low to the horizon to have the best view.  I had some difficulty picking out dim pairs below magnitude 10 -- but the ones I did see were quite pleasing.  My program is to observe pairs of 3" or less, so I went in not aware of any wider companions in the systems.  All at 553x:

STF 2665: Main pair wide and reddish color, B about 3x fainter.  A third star half a FOV makes it appear as a long narrow triangle.  [AB 6.88, 9.55; 3.3".  The BC C is 10.80, and only 0.1" separated from B; so this was not seen.  The third star mentioned is a nicely placed optical pairing?  Stelle Doppie says there are four stars visible but doesn't show a D, or even a visible third.]

HU 1197: Not seen [7.5, 12.3; 1.2".  B star too faint to see, too close to A.]

STF 2673: Faint but well-split, ~3 disk separation.  B ~2 magnitudes fainter.  A is blue-green, B reddish; pretty.  [I saw the AB pair, 8.29, 9.75; 2.3".  There is a AC pair, 8.60 & 76.8", and even a CD, 11.43 15.6"] 

Ho 131: !! Yes!  Seeing needed to be perfectly still so that A's diffraction disappeared; then B would emerge from the dark as a very faint point to the NW, about 3 disks away.  Very nice observation!  [AB 6.97, 10.60; 3.5".  There are also AC and AD pairs, much more widely separated and even fainter.]

BU 987: Not seen.  [AB 6.80, 11.10; 2.6".  I did not try for AC, AE, or CD.]

1 Delphini: 1 disk split to the NNW when seeing stills.  A tough observation; but sure since it is round and faint point and does not disappear when diffraction stills.  [6.20, 8.02; 0.9".  There is a 14.9 mag C pair further out.  1 Del is a fascinating star that spins once in 0.9 earth days!  See http://stars.astro.illinois.edu/sow/1del.html].

BU 664:  Not seen.  I do see a very faint star further out but it's too far to be a pair.  [AB 7.23, 12.70; 8.6".  There is a 13.6 mag C, but too faint for me to have seen last night.]

MR Del / AG 257: Uncertain.  I do see one pair, but the B is averted vision only -- blinks into view -- but is too far away to be the pair.  Getting too low for good seeing.  [9.49, 9.77; 1.7" ~2000 year period.]

BU 1208: Not seen; platform ran out of arc while trying to find this, so needed to reset.  [6.95, 11.0; 3.1"]

STF 2701: Well split orange-yellow pair, A ~1x brighter.  [8.32, 8.59; 2.1"]

STF 2713: Exactly same brightness, very wide split.  Must have formed exactly at the same time, of exactly the same amount of stuff.  Seeing becoming watery.  [9.8, 9.8; 4.9"].

STF 2718: Same brightness white pair.  [8.28, 8.39; 8.6".  A 9.02 star is bound to both A & B 167" out.]

STF 2720: Well separated, near equal magnitude, slightly orange.  [7.8, 9.9; 2.6"]

STF 2721: Nice!  Well split, slight orange A, reddish B, ~3 magnitude difference.  [7.8, 9.9; 2.6"]

STF 2722: Can stretch this into same FOV with STF 2721 edge to edge.  Wide split and nearly equal magnitude.  [8.32, 8.94; 7.5"]

STF 2725: Super wide, 1 magnitude difference; both faint yellow-white.  [7.54, 8.2; 6.1"]

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