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Old 25-01-2020, 10:47 PM
Saturnine (Jeff)
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Observation Report of Double Stars in Volans

Hello All

I have been an avid reader of others reports posted on here and enjoy them and the fact that there are still many observation amateurs out there in telescope land. Have been intending to post reports several times in the recent past but I am not a great record keeper of my observations and time slips away too quickly for me to get my observations in to print. So anyway here is my little attempt.

Observation of some Double Stars in the Constellation Volans. 21/1/20

Resources - Cambridge Double Star Atlas by James Mullaney and Wil Tirioin Double Stars for Small Telescopes by Sissy Haas.

Instument - 250mm F5 Newtonian / Dobsonian, 16mm & 7mm W.O. UW Eyepieces.
Seeing 6 / 10 Transparency 4 ( some thin smoke haze )
Bortle 5 ( Orange Zone )

Innes 351 Sep. 16.4" P.A. 333* Mag. A 6.5 B 10.0
Tenth mag. secondary only just visible with direct vision despite the generous separation at 178 X. Primary is orange but B too faint to discern any colour.

Gamma Volans. Sep. 13.7" P.A. 298* Mag. A 3.9 B 5.4
Both stars appear yellowish, a bright easy double in a field of several fainter stars giving a pleasing view.

H3997. Sep. 1.9" P.A. 126* Mag. A 7.1 B 7.0
Excellent equal mag pair of white stars cleanly separated by a thin black gap at 178X.

Zeta Volans. Sep. 16.5" P.A. 117* Mag. A 4.0 B 9.7
Easy double despite the mag. difference, well split at 178X . Primary appears orange but B too faint to tell.

Epsilon Volans. Sep. 6.0" P.A. 24* Mag. A 4.4 B 7.3
A white and pale yellow pair easily split in a field of several faint field stars making for a pretty sight.

Kappa Volans. Sep. AB 64.8" PA 58* BC 37.6" PA 31* Mag. A 5.3
B 5.6 C 7.7
A lovely moderately bright triplet in a slightly bent line best seen at 78X , lower powers giving a better overall view than higher mags.

While in the region I moved the scope north to Carina to a pair of pairs in a bent line with another similar mag. field star that I had previously observed.
Moderate powers and an UW eyepiece are needed to separate the closer pair but to keep the 3 main stars in the same field.

RMK 6 Sep. 9.1" P.A. 26* Mag. A 6.00 B 6.51

HJ 3958 Sep. 28.4 P.A. 279* Mag. A 6.88 B 9.14

The other field star in the line is HiP 35589 at mag. 5.4. An interesting field.

Just for the exercise I moved the scope over to the Trapezium in M42 but even at 312X ( 4mm WO Uw ) could not see E or F, which gives some indication of the extinction caused by the smoke haze despite the reasonably steady seeing.

Hope someone finds this report worth reading.

Cheers
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Old 26-01-2020, 08:04 AM
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Tinderboxsky (Steve)
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Sounds like an enjoyable and successful session last night Jeff. I enjoyed reading your report.
Epsilon Volans is certainly in a pretty field of view as you have noted. Some brief notes I made almost exactly two years ago using a 140mm refractor - "unequal, moderately close pair, white with hint of yellow primary and very faint beautiful point of light for companion. Jewel like appearance."
Your report prompts me to return to this rich area.

Thanks for sharing.
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Old 26-01-2020, 08:11 AM
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Tinderboxsky (Steve)
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Jeff, I forgot to ask in my previous post; what is your opinion of Sissy Haas' book, Double Stars for Small Telescopes? Does it cover enough southern doubles? I am well south at 43 degrees and certainly prefer chasing far southern doubles. I have been an observations contributor over the last couple of years to her double star project.

Steve.
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Old 26-01-2020, 11:01 AM
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ngcles
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Hi Jeff,

Thanks for the report. I've seen four pairs in Volans over the years. Went back 25 years to find my observations of these

Gamma Volantis (Dunlop 42) 25cm f/6 notes:

x138: Beautiful colour contrasting pair, A is deep yellow with B being cold white, well separated by about 15" in PA 300, two magnitudes of brightness contrast. A little like Alberio.

The spectra of the stars indicates K0 (III) and F2 (V). Just a bit curious in the difference between my colour(s) description and yours.


Zeta Volantis (Dunlop 57) My 25cm notes:

x181: No problem, attractive pair with a mid-yellow A and B is cold white + 5 magnitudes of brightness contrast, 4.0 9.0 Separated by 15-20" in PA 120. Thin field. The colour of B is subtle.



Epsilon Volantis (Rumker 7) My 25cm notes:

x181: Beautiful pair. A is off white/cream, B is cold white with a magnitude difference of 3 magnitudes, 4 & 7 perhaps. In PA 20 reasonably close, maybe 4". Very attractive.

Good to see you have a productive and successful session.



Best,

L.
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Old 26-01-2020, 05:24 PM
Saturnine (Jeff)
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Thanks for the replies and feedback Les and Steve, much appreciated.
Steve, I find the Sissy Haas atlas quite handy for use in light polluted suburbia, it and the Cambridge atlas both list 7 doubles and that is what I was concentrating on the other night and I guess they are aimed at the less than obsessed observers and less than perfect skies. I also have printed maps using Starry Night Pro. ver. 4.5 that I configured to show more, 15 in fact, but still keeping the magnitudes brighter than 10 . The extras are mainly John Herschel and Innes catalogue listings and there are other resources available , WDS for example and Cartes du Ciel. Between them all there are enough targets to keep me occupied for life.
Les. my colour description could have and probably was skewed by the smoke haze, giving them all a more orange hue and for my old eyes and the aperture used, anything fainter than mag. 8 appears grey / white. It will be an interesting exercise to revisit this area again from a darker site with no smoke pollution and take note of any differences.
Wasn't trying to be too techy with the descriptions and the measures were taken from the Sissy Haas and Cambridge atlas'. What I should do is get the Celestron Microguide eyepiece out and put it to use. There never seems to be enough time or clear skies to do all I would like to though.
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