It's A Snip

Yeah, I know, another terrible headline, but whatya gonna do?

While observing Zeta Cancri I bagged another few doubles in the Crab, all were observed with a 110mm refractor.

STF 1173: A nice wide pair with a pale orange primary accompanied by a white neighbour. At 8 & 9.5 magnitudes they are not stellar lighthouses, with a separation of 10 they are an easy split.

STF 1162: Another orange-white combo, wide at 9.1, the orange primary is 8th magnitude, the companion is a faint 10th magntiude, though I was able to get the split even at x59, they sit in a nice field of stars.

STF 1170: This is a pretty pale yellow and white pair of equal 8th magnitude stars. They are tight at 2.3 and I just just achieve the split with a 4.8mm Nagler yielding x135. With the stars being of equal brightness made the job that little bit easier.

STF 1201: A brilliant, blazing white couple shining at 8 and 9.5 magnitudes. There is a good separation here at 6.6, a 6.5mm eyepiece was enough to get the job done.

STF 1202: This was a more difficult pair to separate, they are tight at 2.4 separation and unequal magnitudes of 7.5 & 9.5. The 4.8mm Nagler was required to show open space between them, the primary is a nice yellow star with the companion appearing white.

STF 1187: Another tight yellow-white pair, 2.5 separation needed maximum magnification, x135 in my case, to split. With magnitudes of 7 & 8 they were bright enough, and close enough in brightness, to allow me to split them

STF 1188: In contrast to STF 1187, this orange-white pair is very wide at 16.1, x59 was sufficient to separate this 8th & 9th magnitude pair.

Cancer holds very few doubles that are within the reach of the 110mm, there are perhaps half a dozen more from my list that are still within the grasp of my scope. Tonight looks promising, so perhaps I will complete the list.

Thanks for your time.

Paul

Thank you for another superb list, Paul. I have had the opportunity to observe stf 1162, 1167, 1170 and 1171 in recent nights. Stf 1173 is the next one on my list. Maybe tomorrow night, I shall give it a shot.
Cancer has some many doubles.

Aubrey.

Great descriptions, as always, thanks Paul. (Terrible title, as always, too. :laugh: ) How did you get on tonight?

I think there must be more doubles in Cancer withing the range of the 110mm than you suggest. Where do you get your lists of targets?

Cheers,
Mike

Thanks guys.

I'll fill in a report later on, I have a list of doubles stars Mike, which I got many years ago, and to be honest, I can't remember where I got it, can either yourself, or Aubrey, recommend a site that lists doubles, the funny thing is, my list didn't include Zeta, strange.

Paul

Hi Paul,

Here's a brilliant site by Alain GÉRARD (in French, but the numbers are in English :laugh: )

www.astrosurf.com/agerard/observ.html

Another excellent site for doubles:

www.carbonar.es/s33/33.html

Cheers,
Mike

Thanks Mike, they are fantastic lists, definitely going to dip into them.

I went out in good spirits last night, confident that another bagful would be seen. Things, however, didn't start out that way. My first guide star was chi Geminorum, it's not far from Pollux, a short hop. Oh boy, could I not find chi, time and again I started and failed, only to start again, but it was like I was lost and couldn't find my way. For half an hour I tried and seriously contemplated packing it in for the night in frustration. I stuck at it and finally bagged the chi and that led me to my first doubles, after that it was clear sailing. There are times star hopping is so annoying.

Here's the doubles I managed to grab last night.

STF 1181: An orange/white combo of 7th and 9th magnitude stars, this is a pair with moderate separation of 5.2, cleanly split at x135.

BU 581: This pair consist of a red primary and white companion, it is not a deep red but nice all the same. At magnitudes 8 & 10 they are not a bright collection. A separation of 4.9, combined with the unequal magnitudes, made this a difficult pair to split, maximum magnification was required.

STF 1177: A bright white pair, 6.5 & 7.5 magnitudes, the primary has a tint of blue. A good separation of 3.4 means that at x135 I could get darkness between them.

STF 1191: Tight at 3.2, 8.5 & 9th magnitudes mean it took x135 to separate them, the primary is a dark orange, the companion white, a nice colour contrast.

STF 1197: I didn't really expect to split this pair, they are so tight at 1.8, magnitudes 8 & 9, and I found that I was unable to do so, I could make out a slight elongation, though at times it was difficult to see.

HJ 777: An easy pair of white stars, very wide at 11, not the brightest of stars at 8.5 & 10, but thanks to the wide separation it was an easy grab.

11 Cancri: The most difficult split of the night, the reason being that the stars have a large difference in magnitudes at 7 & 10. They are a tight pair, a separation of 3.2 only added to the problem. The primary is a lovely red star, the companion white. I had to wait for one of those clear moments of seeing to split them. At times I wasn't sure that I got the split, continued observations told me I had, I was really pleased with this one.

Thanks for your time.

Paul