A Horse of a Man

Lurking low to the south, caught amid the turbulence of the atmosphere, there lives a shy creature of immense proportions, a centaur strides with caution along the horizon, just occasionally popping his head above the horizon and takes a peek at what goes on in the north. He clearly does not like what he sees in that part of the sky, observing that other horse clearly makes him nervous and he only hangs around for a very short time before dipping back to his familiar southern skies, getting on better with the other centaur that lives in that region.

Taking advantage of this brief appearance, I dipped into what little of the northern constellation is available, and plucked out a few doubles.

54 Sagitarii: A really nice 5.5 magnitude orange primary greets the eye, there is a white companion star close by, this is not the secondary, the true secondary dwells much further out, the separation of this pair is 45, the closer star is separated by 7 or 8. The companion is a white star of magnitude 8.5.

HD 177119: A pair of white stars, magnitudes 7.5 & 8.5, they have a comfortable separation of 7.8 and I could split them at X60, I liked the view at X97 as it provided a crisper image and the separation was nice and clean.

HJ 5070: An equal pair of 8.5 magnitudes stars, comprising very pretty orange and white stars, the colour contrast is pleasing to the eye. Nice and wide at 9.5 I was able to split the pair at X29 with the 22mm Vixen, again, X93 gave the best view.

HJ 5082: Orange and white again, the difference with this pair is the difference in magnitudes, the orange primary is a bright 6th magnitude, the white companion glows at a duller 9th magnitude. I found this split a little more difficult, the altitude was low, the variance in magnitudes and the separation of 7.6, I had to push the power and achieved a good split at X118.

S 710: Remarkably similar to HJ 5082, the magnitudes at similar, the separation too, the only difference is that S 710 is a pair of white stars.

S 722: A white pair of 8 & 8.5 magnitude stars separated at 10, there is nothing particularly remarkable about this double.

STF 2565: A pair of 8.5 magnitude stars comprising a nice orange and white pair, with a separation of 5.6 I first achieved a split at X60, pushing it to X93 brought the best view. The fourth orange-white pair of the evening and worth hunting down.

S 715 & S 716: A really pleasing set of doubles that appear in the same field of view at X93. All four stars are white in colour with magnitudes ranging from 7.5 to 8.5, both doubles are easy to split at X60, I upped the magnification to X93 to get them both nicely framed.

Here's a sketch I made:

farm8.staticflickr.com/7322/9596474245_2eb272658a_h.jpg

It was nice to explore a part of the sky that is rarely seen.

By the time I observed the last doubles Sagittarius was disappearing behind the neighbour's house and the moon was high in the east and finished the night with some lunar observing.

Thanks for your time.

Paul

Thanks for another poetic report and for the sketch Paul. Some of your targets were not on my list, so I've added them now.

54 Sqr and S 722 are in the same fov (approx 43' separation) so they form another "double double". Could the ID "HD 177119" be an error? SIMBAD only gives a pair of 11th magnitude stars for that ID.

Thanks again, Mike.

Loved reading that, especially the intro Paul, you lunartic, ya...

Hi Mike

This is the list that I am working off:

astronomy.eaglecreekobservatory.org/doubles/sgr.html

I was able to split S 715 & S 716 with the same eyepiece, I found 54 a more difficult prospect, the separation was wider and the companion fainter and it needed a higher magnification. The next time I get the opportunity I can go back and see if I can split the pair in the same FOV.

Thanks Seanie, I was getting a little lyrical, it must be old age creeping up on me.

Paul

Hi Paul,

Checking the coordinates given on the Eagle Creek observatory site, the best match seems to be HN 129 (WDS 19042-2254) listed as magnitudes 6.9 and 9.2, with a separation of 8", and spectral type A0.

I agree with Seanie about the intro to your report. It's great stuff, reminded me of the opening to a Marvel comics storyline! Maybe those late nights in the spooky darkness are getting to you?

Mike

Hi Mike

Looking at Uranometria Vol 2 map no. 145, the co-ordinates for HD 177119 are the same for the variable star SU Sagittarii, close to Nunki, south of omicron Sagittarii.

Paul