Episode II Return to the Dog
With clear skies and some unfinished business, it was back to Canis Major, this time I was able to observe more of the southern region, just as they skirted above the wall and shed, and got the following.
HJ 2321 Magnitudes 8 & 9, this pair proved difficult, even though they are separated by 5.6", it was early in the evening and the seeing had not settled down. I used X145 to get the separation, just. The primary is listed as yellow-white, to me it showed white, again I put this down to the altitude.
HJ 3845 Again low down, very wide at 35", this 6th mag. yellow primary is accompanied by a faint, 10th mag. companion, I had to use averted vision to see the secondary.
Tau CMa A cracking sight, Tau sits in the middle of a small cluster of unrelated stars, giving the appearance of a loose open cluster. There is a wide variance in magnitudes, 4.5 & 10, knowing the PA is essential to spot the companion, the best view I got was at X93, this is a sight worth tracking down.
HJ 3945 A very easy double to split, wide at 27", this red 7th mag. primary is seen with a white 9th mag. companion, easily split at X59. The red primary is not a deep red, it's listed as M0 and is like a really dark orange.
HJ 3938 A white pair with magnitudes of 7 & 9.5, X93 split them easily, the primary is an intense white.
HJ 3950 A tight pair of 8th mag. white companions, separated by 3.9" I was able to split them at X93.
HJ 3934 White stars again, mags. 7 & 8.5, wide at 14" so not much of a challenge, X93 was more than enough.
S 541 A nice orange-white combo of 8th & 9th mag. stars, widely spaced at 23", the difference in colours was pleasant to look at.
BU 575 This double is in the northern part of Canis Major, with the constellation dipping behind the houses I was running out of real estate. The 8th mag. yellow primary has a 10th mag. white companion, with a separation of 16", this was not difficult, I used averted vision to confirm the companion. This pair sit in a nice field of stars.
I attempted Sirius again, with the same result, the same went for Adhara, mags. 1.5 & 8 with a separation of just 7.5" and the low altitude proved to be too much.
Tau is -24.57, I'm lucky to be able to see so far south, there are other doubles that I would like to attempt even further south, when I got around to trying them it was too late, the next time I will have to head to that section of Canis Major first.
Thanks for your time.
Paul
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