Hello double star admirers.
At about 9.15 pm on Thursday night, I observed Tegmine (Zeta Cancri) and saw all 3 components at 167X. There is nothing new in that -even if it is my favourite triple star.
However in Burnham's Handbook, about 3 degrees north of Tegmine lies Struve 1191. It is a double star and it has a separation of 3.5 arc seconds. The PA is 76 degrees. I split it at 112X, 140X and 167X. What is remarkable about this double are the magnitudes of the 2 components: A is 10.3, B is 10.8 according to stelledoppie.goaction.it . So they are very dim. The difficulty is in finding the single star first at low power -say 40X. There are so many field stars nearby. There appears to be a discrepancy about the magnitudes. Burnham says the 2 stars are 8.5 and 9. But according to Guide 8, the stars are 10.3 and 10.8. There is a 8.9 magnitude star to its west. Stf 1191 is fainter. I do consider Guide 8 and stelledoppie.goaction.it are both correct. They both accept the Washington Double Star as correct source. I saw a red star northeast of Struve 1191. Its magnitude is 9.6. Struve 1191 was fainter that it too.
Exactly 2 years ago, Paul (Lunartic) thought the primary of Stf 1191 was orange. Unfortunately I could see no colour -both stars were plain white to me.
It appears that I have stumbled across my faintest double star yet and I am very pleased with that. At 112X it is a dim gem!
Clear skies,
Aubrey.
  