Antares split??

[middy]

Is this a bit of a split of Antares or just some funky optical/diffraction effect?

2 stacked exposures of 1/30 sec, ISO 400, afocal, magnification 48x on the scope and 3x on the camera.
Would have tried to snap a few more but it is too painful trying to line the camera up with the eyepiece when it is on the tripod.

[JohnG]

Good effort Andrew, I would like to say yes but there is also a slight flare opposite as well but there again could be. Keep it up.

Cheers

JohnG

[asimov]

Very nearly a split. The green coloured flare at 7 O'clock is the little devil.

Good job!

[Doug]

Hi Andrew, hate to the bearer of bad news, but there is no way can be the companion to Antares, sorry.
The angular separtation between the two is listed as 0.55". Antares on your image is spread across a far greater angle. the companion is allways going to be lost in the glare of Antares except under special conditions or maybe the hubble scope or better.
Dave Gee did manage to video an occultation of the Moon and Antares which shows the secondary briefly before the main star cleared the limb of the moon and swamped out the secomdary.
His link seems to not work now, but he might be able/willing to reactivate it if requested.
His email is dave4gee@yahoo.com.au
and the old link that seems not to work is http://us.share.geocities.com/dave4gee/antares_r_clip.mpg (http://us.share.geocities.com/dave4gee/antares_r_clip.mpg)
cheeres,
Doug

[Dennis]

Here is a clean split of Antares (bottom right) with my Vixen 4" refractor and a Vixen x2 Barlow stacked with a TeleVue x5 Powermate. Antares was at the zenith and the seeing was particularly steady that night. Captured with a Meade LPI.

Cheers

Dennis

[ving]

always amazed by that image denis... great stuff :)

need your imaging steeting for such an image please (just bought an lpi).

[Doug]

G'day Dennis, what was the optical train used for the other three images?
And what is the overall fl?
Doug

[Dennis]

Hi Doug

I haven't worked out the overall efl, but here are a couple of links to the other details you enquired about:

For Antares – see the following:
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=2814

For the others – see Msg#7 in the following:
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=9737

Cheers

Dennis

[asimov]

C9.25 2X barlow & extension tube..Not a nice image, but split..

[Doug]

Hey Guys I don't know what The Sky 6 is doing to me, but the Antares secondary is not 0.55" separation as it said, and as I posted, but seems to be somewhere around 2.4 to 3 arcseconds separation. So if one wants to know for sure if they have a good split, all that is needed is to figure out the arcseconds/pixel in their imaging train, then count the pixels occupied by the stellar images.
Anyone interested could visit this site: http://home.earthlink.net/~stanleymm/CCD_topics.html
cheers,
Doug

[middy]

Thanks for the info Doug. Lets do some calculations then ....

Camera field width = 15 deg at full zoom.
15 deg = 15 * 60 * 60 = 54000"
horiz res. of image = 2576 pixels
therefore, 1 pixel = 21"
25 mm eyepiece in a 1200 mm scope = 48 x magnification

This gives 1 pixel = 0.44"

Looking at the magnified image gives a distance of 4 across x 6 down between centres = 7.2 pixels diagonally

Therefore, distance between centres = 7.2 * 0.44 = 3.17"

Close enough for me!! WOO HOO! :party: :cool: :thumbsup:

[ving]

looks pretty convincing andrew :)

[Doug]

Good on yer Andrew, sorry bout the wet blanket earlier, but when THe Sky told me 0.55", well....................
Good to see you're a happy chappy this morning.
cheers,
Doug

[h0ughy]

yeah the video link works, its a quicktime video, amazing to see the second star first then then Antares!

[PhotonCollector]

Hi Doug,

I'm not sure what that overseas made astronomy software is doing to you, but according to the Australian made STAR Atlas PRO software, Antares is seperated by 2.9" from it's hot companion star which is also strong radio source.

STAR Atlas PRO says it is a Magnitude 5.4 star with a B2.5V Spectral Type at a Position Angle of 275 degrees with an Angular Separation of 2.9 arc seconds and catalogued as CDM16294-2626B. Antares has a parallax measurement of 5.40 milli-arcseconds which equates to a distance of 604 Light Years.

Gee, you guys really need some better astronomy software :lol:

Paul M

[Doug]

You might have a point there Paul, THE SKY 6, or my copy at least isn't actually listing Antares as a double.(except it does list 2 spectral clasifications. It was only by zooming in on the map til it showed seaparation and then that separation measured in at 0.55". I am seriously beginning to wonder if the data files are corrupted though because it is doing a few other strange things lately. Nortons star atlas gives 2.6" and some web page I looked up gave a separation of 3"

cheers,
Doug