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Talk about a tale of two evenings. On Saturday I got the 16” dob out, and the seeing was dreadful – developing clouds, and defocused stars indicated some pretty impressive turbulence – it looked like a fast-flowing river across the face of it. I could barely split Acrux cleanly while aligning the scope, so gave it up as a bad job after the first 4-5 stars on the list as the clouds rolled in. Sunday night I tried the 8” dob, and despite the ambient light pollution, the seeing was remarkably steady, to the point where I could push the magnification to 480x and still achieve good views. With less light pollution I think some of these doubles would be very impressive. Generally using the Baader 8-24 zoom for 150x, but also pumping up the tighter splits with an ES 4.7mm and Skywatcher UWA 2.5mm, which was grateful for a rare night out of the eyepiece case.
REGULUS ALPHA LEO - Separation175" MAGS 1.4, 8.2 PA 307° ...Binos
No discernible colour difference. Nice easy one to start with.
TAU LEONIS–
SEP 88" Mags..4.9, 7.4
RA 11h 28m 51 DEC +02° 45' 25"...
Pale Yellow/Violet* contrasts to me?
Agree regarding colours – pale yellow and a duller whitey-blue (call it violet!)
7 LEO- MAGS 6.3,9.4 at sep 41" and PA 90°...Colour Contrast?
I’m getting white and a duller purpley-red for this pair.
6 LEO : SEP.. 37.4" PA 75°MAGS.. 6.0,9.3 RA09:32.0 DEC+09:42 Red/White Pair ?
Light pollution must have been adding some colour for this pair, because I saw purple and yellow.
HD 86133 Stf1399: Sep.. 31" , Mags 6.6,7.5*
.....I see orange /yellow and you?
I’d call these orangey-white and whitey-yellow.
88 LEO: Separation 15"..Mags 6.5, 8.5*** RA 11:31.8***** DEC+14:22...colours?
I’m seeing white with a dusky red companion for this one.
54 LEO AKA STF 1487 ..Separation 6.5" Mags 4.5,6.5
YELLOW WHITE/ Pale Blue?
I’m seeing both white, with the companion having a faint hint of blue as well.
GAMMA LEONIS.. AKA ALGIEBA -
Separation....4.4" PA123°....Mags 2.5, 3.5** RA10:19.9 DEC+19:50... both brilliant ORANGE** to my eyes!
I’m seeing golden yellow and a more pale yellow – perhaps the colour is a bit washed out due to the light pollution, but still a nice colour for each.
90 LEO AKA STF1552 : Separation 3.4" , PA 209°....Mags..* 6.0,7.5*
RA 11:34.7****** DEC+16:47
Pretty tight split, even at 255x. I saw white with the companion suggesting a pale reddish tinge.
Stf 1389 HD 86441:
Sep 2.3", PA 297° Mags 8.0,9.00*
RA 9:52.5 DEC+26:58... Intense RED primary/ORANGE pair..what do you see?
Again, the light pollution is probably responsible for dimming the image – the colours certainly weren’t brilliant but I was seeing a dull red and a dull orange. Also a quite tight split, but the pretty reasonable seeing even allowed a decent view at 480x.
IOTA LEONIS: Sep 1", Mags 4, 6.7 ...........* RA 11:23.9 DEC+10:32 colours ?* VERY TOUGH
I found this one easier than Stf 1389, again reasonably comfortable seeing at both 255x and 480x. I saw the main star as being a whitish yellow, with the companion a duller reddish orange.
Stf 215 HR 4028: Sep* 1" Mags 7.0,7.0
Very tough but equal pair , so good seeing and Dawes limit applies here.110mm Aperture min AND COLOUR CONTRAST
Surprised by the good seeing – split this one (just), colours suggesting very pale orange and very pale blue, but these seemed to vary a bit. Could be completely wrong about these colours.
I also thought I’d add in a couple of others in Leo just for fun – after squinting to split a couple of the tighter ones from Bigjoe, these are well spaced (almost too well spaced), but have large delta mags and the companions are a little dim.
45 LEO: Mag +6.01 & 12.41, sep 34.3” @ 121°
Seeing white and yellow (just!) for this pair, in my location I needed averted vision to see the companion star.
31 LEO: Mag +4.36 & +13.6 sep 8.0” @ 41°
Bright gold main star, but companion too dim for my eyes.
SUBRA: Mag +3.52 & +10.83 sep 96.2” @ 48°
Bright pale gold, and perhaps dim blue for the companion star. With better transparency I think this would be a nice looking pair.
ADHAFERA: Mag +3.44 & +6.03 sep 334.8” @ 338°
Bright pale yellow, and a more orangey-yellow for this pair.
Zosma: Mag +2.55 & +10.87 sep 204.8” @ 342°
Pale white-yellow with a dim blue companion
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