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ving
03-07-2006, 09:15 AM
Seeing Double ~ Scorpius

With Libra in constant battle with you, Scorpios will have a very lively month. Be careful of encounters with wolves, this could lead to being devoured.... money will find its way into your pocket (by the usual methods), spend wisely.

Enough of this silliness.
This months Seeing double will have you looking in the same direction as the last one, just further towards the horizon. Scorpius, the scorpion holds many very well known jewels including globular clusters, open clusters and planetary nebulas. It is also host to quite a number of well known double stars like Antares which is a hard one to split. I won’t put that particular double on my list as most know about it already and it requires a lot of patience and good seeing to split, but by all means if you want to do it then go for it :)

To the north we have the last seeing doubles lupus and the south Ophiuchus. Scorpius has 13 stars that are brighter than magnitude 3 the brightest being Antares at mag 0.96. While you are in the area why not look at the messier objects too: m4, m6, m7, and m80.

1-beta sco: not sure of the separation on this one as cdc doesn’t consider B1 and b2 to be a pair. However... cdc does allow some measurements between object and it is roughly 14" between A and B. both parts are brilliant white one dimmer than the other.

2-HJ4839 5.80/ 8.13,3.8"/: beset by poor seeing this lovely double was still an easy target at low to mid powers. A is white and B is a dazzling yellow... is this to be a fave?

3-BU40 8.07/ 9.86 4.9"/: the double its self is easy enough to find but good seeing will help with the split as this is fairly faint. A showed white and B a dim yellow. Would have looked better under better conditions (seeing was about 3/10).

4-HWE87 7.44/ 9.01 3.2"/ Ooooo!!! This ones different. I was beginning to think they were all going to be the same colour :P. A yellow primary and was it blue secondary or maybe faint white... nice either way.

5-BSO11 6.70/ 7.23 7.8"/: right up from number 2 on the list gets you this jewel. The primary is yellow and the secondary is white. I name this the bowie double.

6-HWE 39 6.74/ 9.53 4.0"/: is it a multiple? Is it a double... i am not sure but there a a heap of stars close to A. A is a brilliant white and B is fairly obvious to as a much dimmer star. Right next to this double is the open cluster cr333, check it out. This is a pretty piece of sky :)

7-SHJ225 7.39/ 8.08 46.9"/:(and b 1808) an easy separation and right near another double this pair are great. Use low power on this to get the b1808 in the same FOV, you'll love it! The primary of shj225 is white and secondary bright yellow, while the primary of b1808 is yellow and the secondary white.

8-HJ4867 5.83/ 9.40 16.3"/: near oc ngc6192 so have a look... this double consists of A white and B red carbon (look like it to me anyhow).

9-HJ4893 7.60/ 9.80 7.3"/: Mwahahaha!!! Such cruelty! Searching for doubles within a cluster :D the primary is white and the sec looks blue... happy searching, its on the outskirts of oc ngc 6231

10-MLO4 6.37/ 7.38 1.7"/: youll get a clear split at highish powers with these 2 bright white stars. There’s a red carbon within the FOV worth checking out too.

11-I603 7.20/ 9.44 1.2"/: gah!!! the moon came out and ruined everything... seeing thru the clouds was hard too. i think i may have got it but will have to come back to it... a nice close challenge fer ya all.

And so there you have it, Scorpius doubles.
Sharp splitting everyone :)
(map attached)

Rodstar
03-07-2006, 09:58 PM
Great work, again, Ving. I'll have look during the week and then post my observing notes.

I agree that Antares is not an easy target. I am getting better at it, having split it two out of the last three nights I have tried. That secondary is a lovely dark blue when you finally see it. In bad seeing I just see a greeny tinge at the edge of Antares. How difficult do you find it through your scope?

Miaplacidus
03-07-2006, 10:10 PM
Excellent work, Ving. Thanks for that. Have you mentioned Nu Scorpii? a double-double, I think, but it needs decent aperture I suspect.

Thanx again,

Brian.

janoskiss
03-07-2006, 11:55 PM
Thanks David! I've uploaded a pdf "article" version for this lot as well. The chart image got a bit noisy with comression but should still be usable. I still have to do the rest of the Lupus ones!

ving
04-07-2006, 12:45 PM
thanks for the feedback guys :)

rod: believe it or not i havent even tried antares :P
brian: I dint include all the doubles in scorp, just the ones i looked at. theres heaps more in the constellation :)
steve: thanks d00d! sharp splittin! :P

mickoking
04-07-2006, 01:19 PM
Great article Ving. If it's clear tonight I will check em out. Last year I split Antares with my 120mm refractor, I tried again the other night but couldn't manage it. I will have a go at it again but this time use me Dob.

h0ughy
04-07-2006, 01:34 PM
Well done Mr Ving, will be exploring these later

JimmyH155
06-07-2006, 01:28 PM
Splendid list of stars, Ving, but I could only find a few in my Herald Bobroff Atlas. The names you use must be from a catalogue I have no knowledge of! Just a suggestion but it would be great if you gave the RA and Dec (you dont do you?) so I could look up in my atlas. Please keep the ideas going because sometimes there is so much up there that it is easy to just concentrate on the usual stars and not to try and find something different. With the RA and Dec, I can, in my 8 inch SCT , set the manual RA and setting circles and will at least be somewhere close. I have never mastered star hopping - what is up in charts is down or left / right in diagonal, and then when you move the diagonal because of the position of the scope, all the stars move round:( and I am lost again. Most of the time I dont even know where North is, but have had success with just nudging the scope a bit! ie if star moves to left, north is to the right or if it goes right, it goes wrong if you get my drift!!:)

ving
06-07-2006, 01:40 PM
so north is right, east is down and left is up.... gah!
I'll see what i can do for you. :)

gbeal
06-07-2006, 05:48 PM
Good one Vingster, you and Rob talking to each other??

ving
06-07-2006, 07:17 PM
not any more... the dirty rat :P

just kidding :)
thnx gary