A couple of frustrating nights. Transparency was forecasted to be better than it was -- though I should have expected the low-lying marine haze which typically develops at the bottom of the bowl formed by the Bay Area's surrounding hills. And seeing was below average to poor, so I limited myself to the 7-inch mask on my 20-inch.
I set-up and tried collimating my new-to-me 8-inch Zerochromat, but I could not get it right. Since I removed the back plate, I think I have not reinstalled it correctly, and the tube holding the corrector is probably out of line. I will keep it set-up in the back since we should not have any rain in the next few days.
Both nights I tried to see my "discovery" of the close faint companion to STF 560. I could not see it with the 20-inch visually, but I did see it using night vision. The primary was bloated, and the faint but apparent companion was sitting on the edge of the disk. My imaging run is scheduled for next week so hopefully it will turn up this time. BU 1046 has similar stats (5.01/12.20 4.5") to my star, and Burnham needed the 36-inch Great Refractor to "detect" it (his word).
PMV = Proper Motion Vector, a check that the two stars are travelling through space (from our perspective) at similar rates and directions. I'm adding this to my analysis as I had neglected it before (relying mainly on parallax overlap).
STF 633 AB: 178; 140x: White stars, wide faint B seen with averted vision at first but can then hold direct. 18% PRO, 920 AU WS, 1.8+0.7 Msol, but the RVD 3.3 > EV 2.2, it is not binary.
05h 10m 42.70s +63° 35' 50.0" P.A. 342.00 sep 11.8 mag 6.77,10.57 Sp F0 dist. 86.13 pc (280.96 l.y.)
STF 638 AB: 178; 140x: Well separated, nearly 1 Dm, light orange stars. -68% PRO, it is not binary.
05h 14m 19.85s +69° 49' 25.3" P.A. 221.00 sep 5.3 mag 7.52,9.06 Sp K1IV dist. 102.99 pc (335.95 l.y.)
STF 661 AB: 178; 300x: Poor seeing, closely separated white stars, 4 Dm. -82% PRO, it is not binary.
05h 13m 13.87s -12° 56' 26.4" P.A. 357.00 sep 2.2 mag 4.43,6.77 Sp B9V dist. 223.21 pc (728.11 l.y.)
STF 667 AB: 178; 140: Light orange A, well separated, 2 Dm. -38% PRO, it is not binary.
05h 14m 41.31s -07° 04' 18.1" P.A. 315.00 sep 4.2 mag 7.15,8.78 Sp K2 dist. 297.62 pc (970.84 l.y.)
STF 670 AB: 178; 140x: Close split with low magnification, half Dm. -65% PRO, it is not binary.
05h 16m 43.88s +18° 26' 22.4" P.A. 165.00 sep 2.6 mag 7.72,8.28 Sp B3V dist. 199.2 pc (649.79 l.y.)
STF 674 AB: 178; 140x: White stars, well separated, 3 Dm. 15% PRO, 730 AU WS, 1.8+0.9 Msol, it is possibly binary and needs an orbit.
05h 17m 31.15s +20° 07' 54.6" P.A. 149.00 sep 10.1 mag 6.82,9.68 Sp F7V+F5IV dist. 81.1 pc (264.55 l.y.)
STF 680 AB: 178: 140x: White stars, well separated, 4 Dm. 50% PRO, 997 AU WS, 2.6+1.0 Msol, but RVD 4.1 > EV 2.6, it is not binary.
05h 19m 14.69s +20° 08' 04.5" P.A. 203.00 sep 9.1 mag 6.22,9.66 Sp K0III dist. 120.34 pc (392.55 l.y.)
STF 688 AB: 178; 140x: Near equal, well separated. 69% PRO, 2,066 AU WS, 2.5+2.4 Msol, RVD 0.7 < EV 2.1, good PMV, it is likely binary and needs an orbit.
05h 19m 20.88s -10° 44' 49.9" P.A. 95.00 sep 10.5 mag 7.52,7.55 Sp K3V+F1
STF 701 AB: 178; 140x: White A, light yellow B, well separated, 3 Dm. 74% PRO, 865 AU WS, 2.8+1.8 Msol, weak PMV. It is possibly binary and an orbit should be tried.
05h 23m 18.50s -08° 24' 55.9" P.A. 138.00 sep 6.2 mag 6.13,8.09 Sp B8III dist. 122.7 pc (400.25 l.y.)
STF 743 AB: 178; 300x: Close separation, white stars, 1 Dm. -30% PRO, it is not binary.
05h 34m 43.20s -04° 23' 31.5" P.A. 283.00 sep 1.8 mag 7.74,8.25 Sp B5V
STF 752 AB: 178; 140x: Bright A and faint wide B. Too large of a parallax error to tell if binary. It has negative PMV, and not likely to be binary.
05h 35m 25.98s -05° 54' 35.6" P.A. 141.00 sep 11.2 mag 2.77,7.73 Sp +B8III dist. 714.29 pc (2330.01 l.y.)
STF 774 AB: 178; 140x: Closely separated with 140x, but the bright primary's disk and diffraction are so expanded with the poor seeing, it nearly touches the companion. Too bright for Gaia, no data. There is a SOC grade 5 orbit, 1508-year period, so who knows?
05h 40m 45.52s -01° 56' 33.3" P.A. 166.00 sep 2.4 mag 1.88,3.70 Sp +B0III dist. 225.73 pc (736.33 l.y.)
STF 790 AB: 178; 140x: Light orange A and yellow wide B, 2 Dm. -21% PRO, and RVD 3.3 > EV 3.0, it is not binary.
05h 46m 02.87s -04° 16' 06.5" P.A. 88.00 sep 7.0 mag 6.43,8.98 Sp G8III: dist. 111.48 pc (363.65 l.y.)
