Double Star Observers of the world unite!

Any chance of getting a double star observers section into the Deep-Sky forum? Some people specialise in the faint fuzzies they look at and those cutting edge pioneers who stretch their telescopes abilities to the very limit (Dawes limit in fact!) deserve their place in the, err, sun.
Be a nice place to share tips and advice as well as favourites, and could keep it all neat.

At the moment I am reluctant ot make too many more new boards because many of the ones we have are not being used. However, if there is demand for it then certainly.

If you want this board folks, post here, if no one posts there will be no board!

Bart B.,
IFAS Webmaster.

That's as fair as can be. Damn!

At the moment I am reluctant ot make too many more new boards because many of the ones we have are not being used. However, if there is demand for it then certainly.

If you want this board folks, post here, if no one posts there will be no board!

Bart B.,
IFAS Webmaster.

OK, I for one would like to see a section on double (and indeed multiple) stars. It's one of the aspects of amateur astronomy I particularly enjoy, especially resolving difficult/close binaries, enjoying the colour differences, and spotting doubles by accident! This happened to me on Friday night, when I decided to have a look at Rigel with my new 8" Dob, and I spotted it's 7th magnitude companion, almost completely overwhelmed by the brilliant supergiant, but clearly visible nonetheless. I had had no idea that Rigel was a double until actually looking at it, and then confirming it later from a constellation guide.

Other doubles/multiples resolved beautifully on my first night out with the new scope were:

Alpha Geminorum

Beta Leonis

Eta Cassiopiaiae

Trapezium (all 4 resolved very nicely )

Oh, and one other thing: if, like Shane and I, you also get a real buzz out of observing binaries and multiples, then please post to this topic, so that we get our forum! If you haven't, then go and check out Albireo (the "head" star of Cygnus, beautiful, easy-to-resolve red/blue pair) the next night you're out, and then post your impressions to this topic!

At the moment we have twenty-five forums (fora?). Three of these have had no new posts since September, one hasn't gotten any new posts since August, and another three haven't been used since October. I'm not saying that we have seven useless forums, but I am saying that we have some redundancies. Do we need separate sections for manned and robotic missions? Looking at the traffic, I don't think so.

I would like to see this site going a bit like the Astronomical League site:
www.astroleague.org/
They have sections for different observing specialities and preferences. How about we do that with a double star section? We could compile a list of 'must-see' double stars, then provide an observing guide, and stick it up in the Resources section.

John Herschel started out as a double-star observer, and look where it got him!