What a Charmer

Hi there guys and girls, Mike. :whistle:

There is another celestial giant that strides the sky across the equator, unfortunately this giant does not get the same recognition as Orion, perhaps because he appears in the summer and autumn, when the skies are not so dark and many scopes are under covers and waiting for the colder nights. This poor chap has a most dangerous job, a job that belongs in the circus, who wants to march across the heavens holding onto a snake? And judging by the length of the beast, it must be a constrictor, Ophiuchus had better not let his guard down for a moment or the IAU will have to come up with the fat snake constellation, what's that in Latin, I wonder?

Anyway, here's the list, it was compiled over two nights, the 2nd and 3rd of September, hope you enjoy it.

STF 2170: According to my list this is a K5 star, orange in colour, I could detect no colour initially, when I focused further until the star became a blur, then a hint of colour was seen. Not a bright pair, 8.5 & 9 mags., well separated at 6.9, I achieved the split at X93, X135 gave a pleasing view.

53 Ophiuchui: A nice contrast of white primary and pale orange secondary, this is a wide pair, separation is 41, therefore it is split using X59. The members are bright at 5.5 & 7.5, a pretty pair of stars.

STF 2188: A white pair of 8.5 & 9th mag. stars separated by a distance of 5.7, not much else to say about this one.

STF 2212: A tight pair of 8.5 & 9th mag. stars, pale yellow and white, separation is a mere 3.1 and seen best at X93. This pair lies within the large open cluster IC 4665 and is a fine sight among the cluster stars.

Here's a sketch I made.

farm6.staticflickr.com/5546/9671847355_29a55c8a13_k.jpg

STF 2223: A pale yellow and white pair of 7.5 & 8.5 mag. stars, wide at 18, sitting in an empty part of space, seen at X59, better at X93

STF 2187: A tight couple, separation is 3.3, I used X135 to see them at their best, they are faint, only 9 & 9.5 mags. The primary is listed as F8, yellow, I could see no colour, perhaps this was due to the faintness of the star.

61 Ophiuchui: A nice wide pair of 6 & 6.5 mag. stars, white in colour they were split at X29, X59 provided a pleasing view as two eyes looked back at me.

67 Ophiuchui: A pale blue primary is accompanied by a white companion, nice at wide at 54, the pair are 4 & 9th magnitudes, this is an easy split to achieve, there are some who report that this star is silvery in colour, I can't say that I have seen this, it looks pale blue to me.

STF 2252: Tight and faint, separation is 3.8 and the magnitudes are 8 & 8.5, X93 separated them with ease, both are white in colour/ STF 2252 sits in the same field of view at 67 Ophiuchui, at low power I can split 67, that could not be said for STF 2252.

SAO 122843: The primary is a pale orange in colour, the companion is white, magnitudes: 6.5 & 7. Very easy to split, even X29 was adequate, the separation being 82. There is a nice halo of 9th and 10th mag. stars surrounding this pair, also, to the north, lies the carbon star SAO 122861.

70 Ophiuchui: This is a cracking pair of stars, pale orange and deep orange in colour, both stars are bright at 4 & 6th mags. The separation is a little tight at 2.8, though the split was easy to achieve at X93, a testimony to the good seeing. This was the highlight of the first night and a sight well worth returning to, the colours are beautiful.

STF 2276: 6 & 7th mag. white stars, wide at 7.1, easily split at X59. The carbon star HIP 88593 lies to the south, a nice traffic light red colour to it.

SAO 103406: A white pair of stars shining at magnitudes 6 & 9, wide, with a separation of 42, an easy split, even at X29.

STF 2329: A pale blue and white pair, not really bright, 8 & 9th mags. and tight at 4.4.

STF 2346: A wide yellow and white pair, magnitudes 7.5 & 9, separation is 23 with faint stars surrounding the pair.

STT 355: White stars glowing at 6 & 9.5 mags. The separation is wide at 38, X59 was more than enough to separate them. There is a faint 9th mag. star residing next to the primary, this could be mistaken for the secondary, the separation distance told me that this was not the case, it was merely a line of sight star.

STF 2254: A very tight pair of faint stars, 8.5 & 9th mags. are separated by a mere 3, requiring X93 to split. As before, they are classified as G5 & K0, yellow and orange, to me they looked white, once more as I defocused the pair I could see colour in their halos.

STF 2166: A wide white pair, magnitudes 7.5 & 8, separation is 27, four faint stars make two nice pairs to the north.

STF 2211: A triple star system of white stars, magnitudes are 8 & 10th pair, the AB distance is 10 and the AC is a very wide 105. I used X93 for the AB split and X59 for the AC split. Knowing the PA was handy.

STF 2235: A pale yellow primary and white companion, magnitudes are 7.5 & 9, they are wide at 19 and sit is a sparse region of space.

Theta Serpentis: For the final star of the night I slipped across the border to Serpens and found the highlight of the second night. A beautiful pair of equal 4.5 mag. white stars that blazed out from the sky, a very generous separation of 22 means that very low magnfication is all that is required to split them. I settled on X59 to give me the best view, Theta sits in a nice filed of fainter stars.

Here is a sketch of Theta.

farm4.staticflickr.com/3762/9675319474_74ed7f9f7f_k.jpg

The seeing was beautiful these past two nights and I was happy to take advantage of the night, thankfully the temperature was still warm, shorts and t-shirt on the 2nd, the 3rd was a little cooler, shorts and a jumper this time.

BTW, before any points out that Ophiuchus is a snake handler, and not a snake charmer, I know, but what a handler doesn't have the same ring to it.

Thanks for your time.

Paul