12 replies to this topic

[flt158]

Hello, friends. 

 

I travelled down out of Dublin in Ireland to the Sugarloaf car park County Wicklow on Sunday night 19th July in my car with my William Optics 158 mm F/7 apochromatic refractor and its Berlebach Planet alt-az mount plus all the equipment in the boot. 

The drive only lasts 30 minutes; and as I reach my destination at 9.30 pm local time, there are clear skies all around. I am in a Bortle 5 zone. 

I started observing at 10.15 pm and did not finish until 1 am on Monday morning. 

At 2 am I was trying to get to sleep. It turned out to be a thrilling night of observing. 

There was quite a good bunch of us in the car park. 

So after all that introduction, I spent some time in Corona Borealis. 

I hadn't visited this constellation since 24th June. 

As my heading states, I had the business of observing 4 doubles and 1 triple - none of which I had observed before. 

 

All figures are from www.stelledoppie.it

 

1. Ho 399 turned out to be the only true binary of the night. Magnitudes: A = 7.7. B = 10.5. Sep = 3.7". PA = 117 degrees. It can be a difficult double to split if the sky isn't completely clear. But this time, under a less light polluted sky,  I had no problem seeing the B star at 112X. It did look better at 140X and 167X. Ho stands for George Washington Hough (1836 to 1909). Both stars are white. It's very close to Iota Coronae Borealis. 

 

2. STT 304 may be an uncertain double, but what a fine sight it truly is. Magnitudes: A = 6.8. B = 10.6. Sep = 10.4". PA = 173 degrees. 40X is enough to see B good and close. 112X makes this double clearer. STT stands for Otto Struve (1897-1963). It's north of Lambda Crb.

 

3. Which brings me to Lambda Crb (12 Crb). Rich from the UK discussed this optical double on 10th June. It has taken me all time time to finally observe it. Magnitudes: A = 5.5. B = 11.4. Sep = 90.6". PA = 68 degrees. What surprised me here was I could see B at the lowly power of 40X. As the gap was sufficiently wide, I decided there was no need to go higher. So a big thank you to Rich for pointing it out to the rest of us. My only source for it is Stelle Doppie, and I'm glad I did not miss out on it. A is F2 yellow-white. B is white. Special thanks to you once again, Rich.

 

4. H 5 75 is an optical double. Magnitudes: A = 7.9. B = 11.5. Sep = 57.1". PA = 113 degrees. Again there is no need to go higher than 40X. A is F2 yellow-white. B is white. It's south east of Epsilon Crb.  

 

5. Wasn't it Mauigazer who drew our attention to SHJ 223? Indeed it was. Well it is also called Upsilon Crb and it is an optical triple star. Magnitudes: A = 5.8. C = 10.4. D = 10.4. Sep's = 87.5" and 123.3". PA's from A = 21 and 50 degrees respectively. All 3 stars split at 40X of course. But I recognised the need to go quite a bit higher. The spectral classes are: A3, A and M8. Therefore A and B are both white. However C is red! I could make its true colour at magnifications 112X, 140X and 167X. What a super sight it is to see a fine red star in any of these eyepieces. Thank you, Steve from Hawaii. 

 

So that's it! It has been a long 3 and a half weeks since I did any observing. 

It was truly worth it. 

I had other celestial objects including Comet Neowise on the same night. 

 

I wish you all clear skies from your friend Aubrey. 

[John Miele]

Great report Aubrey!

 

What a magnificent refactor you are privileged to use...I would love to look through an APO that large! Any issues with focusing shakes or vibrations at high powers?

 

cs...John

[flt158]

It's always wonderful to hear from you, John. 

Thank so much for communicating with me - especially with regards your interest in my apo refractor. 

Well yes! From time to time I do get some shakes and vibrations. 

But only when there is a bit too much wind blowing around the area I am positioned.  

Sometimes we can have a nasty wind occurring at the Sugarloaf. 

We are fairly high up in the car park.  

So I just have to knuckle down and make sure I have everything good and tight. 

Thankfully I do have reasonably good strength in my fingers to achieve that. 

If the sky is clear and the wind is too much, I just won't venture out at all. 

 

Needless to say it will be my final telescope I will ever own. 

I will never sell it as long as I have breath in my lungs. 

And I don't suffer from aperture fever. 

 

I know I did not use high magnifications for this recent report. 

My back garden is better for that - as it is more sheltered. 

 

Best regards to you and your 2 dogs, Lily and Pippa, John. 

 

Aubrey. 

[nerich]

Terrific report, Aubrey! Wonderful to read some observations from you after a few weeks' absence. 

I checked my notes and haven't observed any of these, unfortunately (although I've almost certainly passed by Upsilon Crb in the finder scope a few times ). An HO 399 sounds like a little gem. On the list it goes! 

Glad to hear your skies finally cleared. I hope the planets managed to shine a little light through your refractor, also. It's back to the usual evening thunderstorms for me. 

 

[flt158]

Hello again, everyone. 

There is one more double I have not gotten to in Corona Borealis. 

It is very near Upsilon Crb. 

Its designation is A 348. 

But I will wait until I get a calm clear night before I tackle it. 

Its separation is a mere 1". 

The magnitudes are 9 and 10.9. 

As the Delta magnitude is 1.9 I wouldn't like to guess what magnification I will need to split it cleanly.  

It most certainly is my final double to split in Corona Borealis. 

There are other doubles, but I know full well I don't have enough aperture for them. 

 

I don't know as to when Irish skies are due to clear again. 

However I am over the Moon that I finally observed Comet Neowise on Sunday night.   

 

Clear skies from Aubrey. 

[payner]

Enjoyed your report and glad you had a good evening of clear skies, Aubrey. I too observed comet Neowise for the first time last Friday and Saturday. It was naked eye in my Bortle 5 light polluted skies. 

 

Apologies for veering off topic a bit w/ the comet. We are in perpetual thunderstorms for the week it appears.

[mauigazer]

5. Wasn't it Mauigazer who drew our attention to SHJ 223? Indeed it was. Well it is also called Upsilon Crb and it is an optical triple star. Magnitudes: A = 5.8. C = 10.4. D = 10.4. Sep's = 87.5" and 123.3". PA's from A = 21 and 50 degrees respectively. All 3 stars split at 40X of course. But I recognised the need to go quite a bit higher. The spectral classes are: A3, A and M8. Therefore A and B are both white. However C is red! I could make its true colour at magnifications 112X, 140X and 167X. What a super sight it is to see a fine red star in any of these eyepieces. Thank you, Steve from Hawaii. 

 

Thank you Aubrey for the mention, etc. Yes, I JUST got a good sketch of this system this past Wednesday evening and I'll post it as soon as I've worked it up in GIMP. The B and E components are really dim at M12 and M13 and I'll admit I guesstimated them on my sketch. I didn't get the colors as I was on to the next sketch. I looked it up and I think its the D component that is classified as M5 D, a red dwarf or red supergiant.

Here's a screenshot from Aladin. I added labels to the five stars in the system.:

 

 

S. McG.

[flt158]

Thank you, Steve, for coming back to us.

It is indeed the D component which is M class red. 

I'm looking forward to seeing your upcoming sketch. 

 

Clear skies from Aubrey. 

[mauigazer]

I finished the sketch!

Here it is selected from my Gallery:

 

 

What an exciting system to observe!

 

S. McG.

[Ihtegla Sar]

Hello, friends. 

 

I travelled down out of Dublin in Ireland to the Sugarloaf car park County Wicklow on Sunday night 19th July in my car with my William Optics 158 mm F/7 apochromatic refractor and its Berlebach Planet alt-az mount plus all the equipment in the boot. 

The drive only lasts 30 minutes; and as I reach my destination at 9.30 pm local time, there are clear skies all around. I am in a Bortle 5 zone. 

I started observing at 10.15 pm and did not finish until 1 am on Monday morning. 

At 2 am I was trying to get to sleep. It turned out to be a thrilling night of observing. 

There was quite a good bunch of us in the car park. 

So after all that introduction, I spent some time in Corona Borealis. 

I hadn't visited this constellation since 24th June. 

As my heading states, I had the business of observing 4 doubles and 1 triple - none of which I had observed before. 

 

All figures are from www.stelledoppie.it

 

1. Ho 399 turned out to be the only true binary of the night. Magnitudes: A = 7.7. B = 10.5. Sep = 3.7". PA = 117 degrees. It can be a difficult double to split if the sky isn't completely clear. But this time, under a less light polluted sky,  I had no problem seeing the B star at 112X. It did look better at 140X and 167X. Ho stands for George Washington Hough (1836 to 1909). Both stars are white. It's very close to Iota Coronae Borealis. 

 

2. STT 304 may be an uncertain double, but what a fine sight it truly is. Magnitudes: A = 6.8. B = 10.6. Sep = 10.4". PA = 173 degrees. 40X is enough to see B good and close. 112X makes this double clearer. STT stands for Otto Struve (1897-1963). It's north of Lambda Crb.

 

3. Which brings me to Lambda Crb (12 Crb). Rich from the UK discussed this optical double on 10th June. It has taken me all time time to finally observe it. Magnitudes: A = 5.5. B = 11.4. Sep = 90.6". PA = 68 degrees. What surprised me here was I could see B at the lowly power of 40X. As the gap was sufficiently wide, I decided there was no need to go higher. So a big thank you to Rich for pointing it out to the rest of us. My only source for it is Stelle Doppie, and I'm glad I did not miss out on it. A is F2 yellow-white. B is white. Special thanks to you once again, Rich.

 

4. H 5 75 is an optical double. Magnitudes: A = 7.9. B = 11.5. Sep = 57.1". PA = 113 degrees. Again there is no need to go higher than 40X. A is F2 yellow-white. B is white. It's south east of Epsilon Crb.  

 

5. Wasn't it Mauigazer who drew our attention to SHJ 223? Indeed it was. Well it is also called Upsilon Crb and it is an optical triple star. Magnitudes: A = 5.8. C = 10.4. D = 10.4. Sep's = 87.5" and 123.3". PA's from A = 21 and 50 degrees respectively. All 3 stars split at 40X of course. But I recognised the need to go quite a bit higher. The spectral classes are: A3, A and M8. Therefore A and B are both white. However C is red! I could make its true colour at magnifications 112X, 140X and 167X. What a super sight it is to see a fine red star in any of these eyepieces. Thank you, Steve from Hawaii. 

 

So that's it! It has been a long 3 and a half weeks since I did any observing. 

It was truly worth it. 

I had other celestial objects including Comet Neowise on the same night. 

 

I wish you all clear skies from your friend Aubrey. 

I saw Ho 399 last night for the first time.  My skies are about 18.5 SQML.  Seeing wasn't great, but I could see the secondary intermittently (but quite clearly, as verified by PA) with averted vision in my 10" GSO Classical Cassegrain using a 22mm LVW (138x) and an 18.2 Delite 167x).  Couldn't really see it at higher or lower magnification than that.  Also looked at it in my FC100DL mounted on top but couldn't make a definitive sighting in the smaller aperture.

 

I also looked at nearby Izar and Alkalurops and both of those looked nicer in the 4" refractor, since only the refractor showed nice perfectly round star given the seeing conditions, but only the 10" showed Ho 399.

[flt158]

Hello Ihtegla Sar. 

 

I am truly amazed you have taken the time to seek out both my original post a full 2 years ago in 2020! 

 

However I am very much delighted you did so and have found Ho 399. 

That's a great scope you have and your eyepieces are also top notch. 

 

Please keep on observing double stars. 

They are great fun when the planets are difficult to observe. 

 

By the way, I'm wondering how you came up with your avatar name. 

 

Clear skies and best regards from Aubrey. 

[Ihtegla Sar]

Hey Aubrey!  Hope you are well and have some clear skies.  We finally have some clear weather here in the pacific northwest of the US after months and months of nothing but clouds and rain.

 

My avatar is actually a showpiece double star spelled backwards:  Ras Algethi.

 

I just happened on Ho 399 since it is listed in the Cambridge Double Star Atlas, and I was looking for something challenging in the Corona Borealis area that would be viewable in my equipment and my seeing, which doesn't typically allow for splitting doubles much closer than about 1.5" separation.  After finding it I went online to look for more information about it and I really couldn't find much except your post about your sighting in 2020.

 

I was glad you know what "Ho" stood for, since I didn't.  I've heard of Struve (both father and son), but not Hough.  Double stars have such interesting history.

[flt158]

Thank you for your reply Ihtegla Sar. 

That's a very clever avatar. 

We all know and love Ras Algethi (Alpha Herculis)

But who would have recognised it when its name is spelled backwards? 

 

I do have 2 sides of an A4 page filled with the names of double stars' designations. 

But I'm always adding more to it. 

 

Your copy of the Cambridge Double Star Atlas is a great book. 

My advise is: always hold unto it. 

 

I shall look forward to reading more of your reports, Ihtegla Sar. 

 

Clear skies from Aubrey.