Star splitting?

[simmo]

Does anybody have some good stars to split? I'm going out tonight and with a fullish moon I thought it might be a good time to try and find some double (or more) stars to split. I got my new 6mm UO ortho ;) today as well so it seemed like a good way to start viewing with it! Maybe that's a question in itself. Is it possible to split with the 6mm on a 10" Dob?

I can't find out how to get info on double stars yet. Is there some on stellarium? :help:please.

Cheers Simmo

[GeoffW1]

Hi,

I don't think you would even need a 6 mm for many doubles. There is a fair bit about

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/doublestars/3073201.html

http://users.compaqnet.be/doublestars/#titb

http://www.eaglecreekobservatory.org/eco/doubles/

Read this about Stellarium and double stars

http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/4082485/Main/2617813

Attached is a spreadsheet I made which indexes doubles and multiples by constellation, each sorted by separation. You could select a constellation with a good view, and see if you can split a few doubles around 2-3 arc-sec or so. The moon won't bother you much with this sort of thing.

Cheers

[malclocke]

Apologies if you know these already, but Alpha Centauri and Acrux are both easy to find and should be easily separable with your scope.

[Wavytone]

http://www.southastrodel.com/Page029a.htm

The rest of this site is also worth perusing.

[simmo]

Hello,

Thanks everybody for the information. Quite a bit of reading there. I didn't realise there were so many. I think I'll have to do a bit of sorting out with my charts and stuff to organise a good night of splitting doubles.

I tried last night but I fiddled with the primary while star testing to get some experience with the procedure but really shouldn't have touched it. :doh:

Will get the scope collimated again and head out tonight. Just got to remember to leave the mirror alone!

Regards
Simmo ;)

[GeoffW1]

Hi,

I should have added, doubles with some colour are a particular pleasure to view.

The best known and possibly the most spectacular would be Albireo, in Cygnus, but that is not at its best in southern skies until about July.

Cheers