Cat's Face triple star

Good evening, double star lovers. Last night (10th February) I could not resist it any longer. I set up the scope at 5.30pm and waited for the 1st star to appear. Sure enough, Capella was above the house. This star has an optical companion of magnitude 10, and I could see it just before 6pm @ a mere 40X. Remarkable! The sky is too bright -but there he was straight down from the primary.
Star number 2 was Aldebaran. The primary is quite a strong orange, and yet, I could see his optical companion (magnitude 11) in the 2 o'clock position at 40X too, and the sky is still bright!
So for the 1.hour 30 minutes I could observe, the sky was pristine for such very faint stars.
Next up was Struve 422 in Taurus just north of 10 Tauri -barely split at 40X, but delightful at 112X.
Then was the big surprise. A couple of decrees north is the gorgeous triple star Struve 430. Component A is magnitude 6.8, component B is 9.6 in the 2 o'clock position, and component C is 10.3 and is in the 10 o'clock position. I asked myself -what does he look like? And the simple answer was a cat's face. The bright star is her nose and the 2 companions are her eyes. Only refractors and Schmidt Cassegrains can enjoy this one. Reflectors turn the view upside down. Therefore the effect is lost.
A haze then arrived in the sky at 7.30, so I could only have a quick look at Jupiter and its 4 moons.
Struve 430 was definitely the highlight of my short time observing.

Thanks for reading.

Aubrey.

Nice one Aubrey, I'll have to check out The Cat's Face next time out. There are some cracking doubles in Taurus, check out this list.

www.eaglecreekobservatory.org/eco/doubles/tau.html

Paul

Oh yes, Paul. I have checked out the great website. He is such an enthusiastic chap on doubles and triples and multiples stars.

I am slowly going through Sissy Haas' book, Burnham's Celestial Handbook and the great website stelle doppie goaction.it for most of my information.

It was just a moment of exuberance to get my 6.2" apo out late Monday afternoon and evening to enjoy immensely the few objects I observed.

I simply could not understand how the scope was picking up an 11.3 magnitude star beside Aldebaran when the Sun had not set 1 hour. The position angle is 32 degrees for component B.
It will be next Monday when I have another opportunity to get out under the heavens (weather permitting).

Aubrey.