A serious double star challenge

Hello Pat. What I needed was a mount that is very secure and everything tight, and secondly a calm night with low winds. (Strong winds, forget it), I could not split 10 Arietis at 280X, and only at 320X in my 3.5mm Nagler could I separate the 2 components with the thinnest margin. There was no problem at 374X.

Aubrey.

Aubrey, I was hoping to try 10 Arietis tonight but it seems to
have clouded over maybe later. I was going to use a 10mm zeiss
ortho. and a 2x barlow to give me 330x that might do the trick.


Pat.

Well, Pat. It appears Ireland is to endure very heavy rain for the next 4 days. Next Monday night could be the next opportunity to split 10 Arietis.

Aubrey.

Hi Pat,

Regarding your query about splitting 10 Ari using a 6" reflector, one of the best-regarded attempts to determine whether an unequal double could be split, by a given telescope, of given central obstruction, under given seeing conditions is due to Chris Lord. Have a look at:

fisherka.csolutionshosting.net/astronote...l/LordSplitCalc.html

to get an idea of whether you are likely to be successful. Lord's formula is based on observations, and is probably the most reliable currently available. The key, as Aubrey said, is the seeing conditions, anything less than very stable seeing is likely to frustrate attempts to split 10 Ari with your scope. However, while the seeing varies a lot in Ireland, moderate to good seeing is not so uncommon, though you may need to try on several nights before finding the right conditions. Testing your scope and observational skills using difficult doubles is fun - enjoy the chase!

Mike

Hi Aubrey and Mike, looks like you are right with the weather Aubrey
its not looking good for a few days.
Mike thanks for the link to Chris Lords site I played around with the
numbers and according to his formula I should just be able to split 10
Aries in moderate seeing, will let you know how I get on.


Pat.

Hi Aubrey,
an interesting conversation on doubles here, I regularly use a 12" SCT and would expect it to split doubles at 1.5 arc seconds at those magnitudes, the real killer is highly different magnitudes, I've managed to split Rigel, but haven't managed to split Sirius yet, have you tried that one ?