Binary-Stars

Hi all,

i watched a good documentary on the live of stars on discovery..i was amazed to learn the life of a star....

im wondering are there many stars visible to us with their binary companions that i could see with my scope

and is the term splitting a star actually mean your looking at a binary star?

Hi Tony

There are literally thousands of doubles out there for scopes of all apertures, of course the bigger the aperture the more can be seen. Doubles come in a nice variety of colours from blue-white, to yellow and red and orange. My last time out I saw a purple star, some have said they have seen green stars, still waiting for one myself. The constrast between stars can be breathtaking, Albireo, in Cygnus, has a gold and blue pair that is a delight to observe.

As for splitting stars that's exactly what it means, seeing the separation between both components.

Get out and give it a go and you'll find yourself coming back for more.

Hi paul,

ye im definately intrested in tracking down some binary stars il check out albeiro in cygnus thanks

Tony

Log onto www.cloudynights.com , go to the forum section and then down to the double star observing category. There is an amazing series of sketches by Rich, Asteroid7, they will give you an idea what to look out for.

Ye i actually joined up to that last week i must check that section out

One of the best things about observing double and multiple stars is that they can be seen and split even on bright moonlit nights and even through thin clouds. Once you have seen Sigma Orionis (quadruple), Beta Monocerotis (triple), Rigel and Polaris (both have tiny companion stars), you will be back time and time again. As Paul said, there are thousands of them.