Observations - 19th April 2020

Could you give us the designations, Finbarr?
I'm looking at Guide 9, but I'm not coming across our mysterious double.
Thank you.

Aubrey.

Here is a Stellarium screenshot Aubrey, with the double marked. And the Simbad listings below -



simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim-id?Ident=...min&submit=submit+id

simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim-id?Ident=...min&submit=submit+id

Finbarr.

Hi Finbarr and Darren.

What do you know?
We do have a double star beside Epsilon Herculis.
As far as I can make out the Flamsteed designation is 58 Herculis. It is also called HLM 8. The most extraordinary news is that it is most definitely a true binary! Check out www.stelledoppie.it for the details.
The magnitudes are: A = 11.6. B = 11.45. Sep = 19.8". PA = 347 degrees.
This certainly is a Wow moment!
Your TYC designations are correct, Darren.
So well done to you.

So far I have not been able to discover who HLM refers to.
Any ideas, Finbarr?

Kind regards,

Aubrey.

Eps Herculis actually is 58 Her according to Stellarium Aubrey, the double star is 2 arcminutes to the east. And if you search eps Her on stelledoppie it also returns 58 Her. So the fact it returns 58 Her for TYC 2590-1034-1 is a mistake I think. It could well be a true double though, those Simbad distances have a margin of error and the fact they are both in the 420-440 LY range is suspicious.

ELM was E Holmes, I presume the same astronomer who discovered the comet of 1892 which again outbursted in 2007.  

Clear skies,
Finbarr.

Good morning Aubrey and Finbarr, 

Very many thanks for your replies. 

When I viewed Porrima through the eyepiece there were two other stars in the same FOV. These two stars were dimmer than Porrima, and had a similar magnitude to each other. For these reasons I thought I had split Porrima. However, when I went to confirm whether I had split the star by looking online at sketches and photos of what the split looks like, it seemed that the companion star was of a much brighter magnitude to either of those faint stars. I tried several eyepieces on it too, so maybe I was on the wrong star. Sure, I can give it another go! 

In terms of the double close to epsilon Herculis, you are both very kind for the efforts you are going to by supplying Stellarium screen shots of it, and info from www.stelladoppie.it , and Simbad. That is greatly appreciated gents!

And by the sounds of your most recent posts, it seems like we've stumbled across quite the enigma in this double star. One thing is sure - I'm looking forward to seeing where this conversation goes! 

Kindest regards, 

Darren. 

Eps Herculis actually is 58 Her according to Stellarium Aubrey, the double star is 2 arcminutes to the east. And if you search eps Her on stelledoppie it also returns 58 Her. So the fact it returns 58 Her for TYC 2590-1034-1 is a mistake I think. It could well be a true double though, those Simbad distances have a margin of error and the fact they are both in the 420-440 LY range is suspicious.

ELM was E Holmes, I presume the same astronomer who discovered the comet of 1892 which again outbursted in 2007.  

Clear skies,
Finbarr.

That is all very good, Finbarr. 
It is HLM 8 which is on www.stelledoppie.it . 
Somehow I don't think ELM is the same as HLM. 
But - no matter. We can all call it 58 Herculis from here on. 
58 Her is a Flamsteed designation. 
The only more important designation "in my book" is Bayer with the Alpha, Beta, Gamma and so on. 

Clear skies from Aubrey.