It's Hero Time!

Hi all

Well, Sir Patrick gave us a final gift, a beautifully clear night and it was in memory of Sir Patrick that I ventured into the back garden to hunt down doubles in Perseus.

Here's the list, hope you like them

STF 230: A widely separated pair of white stars, 8th & 9th magnitudes, easily seen
at X100

HJ 2143: Another white pair of 8 & 8.5 mag stars, they are wide with a separation of
23, they reside in the open cluster NGC 957, which makes for an interesting
background field.

Mu Persei: A very wide pair of greatly differing magnitudes, 4 & 10, separation is
84, thanks to the fainter companion knowing the PA is important as there
are other faint stars in the field. Mu is a pale orange star, the
companion white.

STF 260: A nice yellow primary of 8th magnitude is joined by a white companion of
similar magnitude, easily split at X135 with a separation of 6.5.

STF 519: Orange and white are the colours of this pair, 7.5 & 9th magnitudes, wide
with a separation of 18. This is another pair that resides within an open
cluster, NGC 1545, it's grabbing a pair of objects at once, nice.

STF 512: Orange and white once more, they are equal magnitude 8.5 stars, therefore
the 5.2 separation is an easy split at X100, they appeared to be lying side
by side.

S 451: Very wide pair consisting of a pleasant pale yellow primary with a white
secondary of equal 7.5 magnitudes. Magnification of 60 was plenty to split
them.

57 Persei: Another pale yellow/white pair, very wide with the separation being 115.
This split was so easy that I could achieve it with a magnification of
29, they make an nice pair.

STF 563: An 8th magnitude blue-white primary is accompanied by a white companion,
not the brightest pair in the heavens at 8 & 9.5 magnitudes. With a
separation of 11.8 they are not too difficult, X100 should be sufficient.

STF 500: A tighter pair of orange and white stars, with magnitudes of 8.5 & 9.5 this
was a more difficult split, the separation of 4 required higher
magnification and that moment of perfect seeing, which can be a strain on
the eye.

STF 477: Even tighter than STF 500, the stars are of the same magnitudes, both being
white, the separation of 3.1 requires more patience to tease out the split.
Thanks to Perseus being at the zenith the split was achieved, close to the
horizon would have made it impossible with my instrument.

STT 59: The job is getting more difficult, the split is only 2.7 and it took a lot
of waiting for the perfect moment, even then I was not sure of the split.
Primary is listed as orange, I could not tell if this was the case as they
were so tight, white was the colour I perceived.

STF 391: Another tight pair, my poor eyes, 3.7 this time, a pair of reasonably
bright, white stars, 7.5 & 8, the split was achieved at X135, a thin
black line appearing between the pair.

SAO 39005: An easy pair of 8th magnitude white stars with a wide separation of
41, I got a nice view at X100.

STF 443: Yet another orange/white combo, easily separated at X100, magnitudes
8 & 8.5 make up a pretty pair, the separation of 8 ensures an easy split.


I finished the evening just wandering around Orion and observing Jupiter, there were plenty of bands to see on the clouds and the moons had a nice shape to them.

Once more, thanks to Sir Patrick for the clear night, think of the view he has now.

Paul