A Double Dose Of Leo

Hi all

Monday night saw me out under Leo, and with not having to get up for work until late the next day it gave me a chance to really dig deep for the following:

STF 1417: A close pair of equal white members requiring moderately high magnification to split.
STF 1399: A pretty pair this, the primary is yellow with a pale orange secondary, with a sep. of 30 this is an easy double.
STF 1419: Another white pair, with a comfortable sep. of 4.5.
STF 1421: This yellow and blue combo is set off nicely by another yellow star to the east. Easy at 103X and pleasing on the eye.
STF 1431: Yellow and white this time, easily seen at 63X and nice at 103X.
STF 1434: This pair of equal yellow suns is nice to discover, a wide sep. of 6 makes this 8.5 mag. pair easy to split.
STF 1442: Wide and easy, a yellow primary is offset by a white companion. Half a mag. is the different at 7 and 7.5 magnitudes. Seen at 48X with ease.
STF 1446: Pale orange decorates the main star of this pair, the secondary ice white. 63X showed the pair well in a field with three stars of equal 8th magnitude brightness as the primary.
STF 1447: A white couple at 7th and 9th magnitudes, separation of 4.
STF 1448: A beautiful pair of yellow-orange and pale blue stars. The colour contrast is wonderful as they sit in a wide box of 9th and 10th magnitude white stars.
49 Leonis: A very tight pair of white stars, this required me to use the highest magnification I possess, 206X, to split. The primary is 6th mag, the companion 8.5, the sep. is only 2 and it is the difference in brightness that makes it more difficult.
STF 1468: An equal pair of 8.5 mag. orange and white stars, the separation is 4 and is easy at 103X
STF 1482: Another orange/white couple, the sep is wide at 12 making them easy to split, mags. 8 and 9.
S 617: A nice colour difference here, the primary is pale orange, almost yellow, the secondary is light red. The primary is 6th mag and there is a similar coloured star to the east of equal brightness. The secondary glows at 10th mag.
STF 1502: Another orange/white pair, there are two strings of three whites stars running beneath the pair.
STF 1506: A delightful pair, an 8th mag. orange primary is seen with a deep red 9th mag. companion, I suspect by the deep red colour of the secondary that this could be a carbon star. This pair are wide and seen at all magnifications.
STF 1507: An 8th mag. yellow primary is seen with a 10th mag. white secondary. Wide with a sep. of 8, best seen at 103X.
STF 1511: Equal bright red and white stars glowing at 8.5. I could split them with ease at 63X.
ADS 8098: An other red/white combo. Unlike most doubles the separation between the pair is enormous at 104. At 7.5 and 9.5 mags. they could be seen at 48X and best seen at 63X.
STF 1521: An equal 7th mag. pair of white stars, a sep. of 4 makes them easy at 103X.
STF 1529: Yellow and white this time, wide at 9.4 these 7th and 8th mag. pair present a nice split at 63X
STF 1537: A very tight pair of orange and white stars. Only 2.4 separates the 7.5 and 8.5 stars and it took 126X to separate them.
STF 3070: A pale orange 8.5 star drifts through space with a 9th mag. white friend. Wide at 9.2 sep.
Tau Leonis: Orange and white again, the sep. is huge at 95 between 5.5 mag. primary and 7th mag. secondary. There are plenty of stars in the field and I could pick out the companion by using the PA, which is 176.
STF 1548: Another pretty contrast in colours, the main star is brilliant white, the companion is a dull red, another carbon star perhaps? It is such interesting colour contrasts that make doubles so fascinating.
90 Leonis: Two white stars at 6th and 7th mag. respectively, comfortable at a sep. of 3.5. A couple of close stars close by.
STF 1564: 8th and 9th mag. white stars split with ease at 103X
93 Leonis: The primary is 4th mag. orange, the secondary 8th mag. white. Split at 63X because of the separation of 74, if a sep. was closet to 4 or 5 then I doubt if I could do it.
STF 1582: Yellow and white, wide at 12, and easily split at 63X.

The moon is in Leo and therefore interfering with the seeing. Two things I did notice was that most of the faint stars in the FOV were washed out, I was only seeing half a dozen and less stars. The second thing was the effect on the orange stars, and there are plenty of them in Leo, the whites, yellows and reds seemed to hold their own, but the orange stars suffered and they seemed to pale. I had observed orange stars in Leo on my previous night out and they showed greater contrast. I might revisit some of tonight's when the moon is out of the picture.

If you stayed with me this long, thanks for going the distance.