Project Sirius

[ving]

Double splitting has become my game and my obective is to split sirius.
for those that dont know, what you see in you telescope when looking at sirius is not just one star! she has a pup!
apparent ly the second star is so cloce to sirius that th brilliant light drowns the "pup" out. and so begins my adventure...

last night with the clouds clearing for the first time in ages I set out for the first time to go pup hunting. the seeing was, well on a scale of 1-10 where 10 is perfect and 1 is clouds it would have been 1.3... actually prolly 2. when looking at the moon it looked like a hazey blob it was so bad. but it cleared a bit.

first stop was beta orionis. now I had done this one before and I did it again. 'A' is brilliant and blue in the night sky with quite a large seperation (9.5") to 'B' which although fainter is really quite bright but drowned out by 'A'. an easy target at 80x.

stop number 2 was alnitak... I split this easy with my 133x EP and thought I had done minor miracles as I had heard this one was hard to do. then I found out the it was a double double. gah! back out during better seeing with that one i guess.

last stop sirius!
brilliant in the clearing sky this star was to prove imposible last night. I started at 133x and well it was still just one star. I bumped it up to 200x and its sherr brilliance was still drowning out the pup. I put a light pollution filter on and thought the glare dies heaps till no pup. I barlowed the 9mm @266x and sirius swam hapily in front of me... last but not least I bralowed the 6mm @ 400x.... nothing

I need better seeing I think.

different things i tried:
*moon filter
*skyglow filter
*pushing it just out of focus (apparently you can sometime see it just in the side of the dirffraction rings)
*averted vision (dont know why but it still didnt work)

headed in when mission control needed attention...

stay tuned for my next try.:confuse3:

[vindictive666]

hello ving

i read somewhere it is weally weally hard to split thata one :)

as soon as i get my scope i am gonna try it myself :)

[ving]

gluck!:evil:

[Argonavis]

suggest a google search for some techniques. It helps to know the position angle so you know where to look.

BTW I haven't seen it either - but the separation is increasing over the next few years so I have put it on my observing list. And anyway, alpha canis majoris is magnificant to look through a scope.

[seeker372011]

I could almost swear I saw the white dwarf -the Pup-on Tuesday night.I called my son to come out and confirm and he saw it it too-
location our backyard. At least I wsnt hallucinating, though of course both us could have been simply mistaken. But it did appear as a very distinct and tiny companion next to the incredibly brilliant Sirius.

It faded in and out -but we had the webcam hooked up to the C8N and were watching it on the laptop screen-so magnification of around 200

kicking myself for not hitting record-It was dumb luck anyway. I wasn't really after double stars just trying to focus the webcam and picked Sirius as an easy target, and now possibly missed a one off opportunity

[ving]

yeah I may or may not have seen it in my last viewing... its really hard to tell!

on saturday night i am heading to a dark site so i'll try there. wish me luck :)

[jjjnettie]

I'll add this challenge to my list for Saturday night as well. I'd have buckleys chance with my little scope, but with Astro-Souths 12' Dob we might be in with a chance.
Jeanette

[ving]

what size scope you got? I've heard of people doing it with a 4" scope. and tho I havent tried with my lil' refractor (a mear 60mm) i have spotted proxima with it.

best of luck anyhow:astron:

[RAJAH235]

Why not make an off axis aperture stop,say 80mm hole. Place on t'scope. Make up some diff. shaped masks to fit over the hole.(square,hexagon,triangular etc), then place one over the hole. When correctly focused etc, try ROTATING the shaped mask,(this rotates the diff. spikes), to see if you can find the PUP in the diff. rings. L.

[Striker]

Good luck Ving...I hope you find it......

[ving]

Hi, I have the off axis ap stop. so i might whip up a couple of masks to go with it if i have time. thanks :)

[ving]

gave it a shot last night, but while the skies were plenty clear there was a howling wind to contend with... maybe next time. centaur a was up and saw it for the first time this year tho. chased a few other objects before the wind got the better of my and i ended up with a headache. oh well...

[Striker]

Better luck next time Ving........thats the thing really.......their is always a next time.....

[gbeal]

Hi Ving,
good luck. It is very difficult, and I have yet to do it myself. If you seeing was poor, as Alnitak would suggest then Siruis will not happen. It needs a good (and large I understand) scope, with better than good seeing. Keep trying, but if Eta and Zeta Orionis can't be done, then I would guess Siruis won't either.
Beta Musca, and Gamma Centaurus are two other good'uns.
Gary
P.S. a while back I had a double machine, a 10" Maksutov Newton, and Sirius eluded me, as it has in a friends 16" newt.

[ving]

I managed alnitak last night gary. although i can split the 2 brighter stars I found out its a double double... so I should be looking for 4 stars.
I also split sigma orionis.

I'll keep trying tho. its become my mission. :)
thanks for the encouragement

[seeker372011]

Ok here is sirius imaged full aperture with a 8 inch Newtonian and a webcam

[seeker372011]

and here is Sirius with the scope stopped down

I think you can see the pup here

[RAJAH235]

Looks like about the right mag.(8.7?), and distance. Easy with camera ain't it?
Nice one,Seeker. Should change your name to "Founder",what? :D L.

[seeker372011]

LOL:cheers:

[ving]

well done seeker! er... founder... been too sick to even go out myself :(

[toetoe]

Ving, you said earlier, i may or may not have seen it. When i have that thought i know it is time to try something else before the major frustration look takes over my face. Good luck with this venture to you.

[ving]

never say die peter! never say die!

I DID IT, I DID IT, I DID IT!

last night seeing was only average @ about 5/10. I tried a few easier ones first... beta orionis, alpha cruxis, alnitak (and i knew i was in with a chance when i resolved all 4 stars in alnitak.

I move over to sirius.and used my 9mm then 6.5mm EP.... didnt work. put the barlow in and the 9mm, still nothing. added the aperture stop and replaced the 9mm with the 6.5mm.... nothing!
getting fustrated again staring at his star at full magnification and not being able to see the pup.
then i remember someone (rajah) talking about using diferent shaped masks on top of the apertuer stop. so i ducked inside for a quick hot chocky and started cutting shapes out of paper, one triangle and one octogon. polished off my hot chockie and rushed out side put the triangle one on and........
tadaaaa!! worked wonders. there next to the multi spoked sirius sitting so close it wasnt funny was the lil' pup! :D

stayed with it for a while at full magnification then changed EPs to the 9mm again and it disapeared... oh well.

spent another 1/2 hour looking at jupiter and omega cent at different mags then headed in.
:)

many thanks to everyone for their support. :)

[RAJAH235]

Well done Ving. I always knew you could do it. :D L.

[ving]

thanks for the mask idea rajah :)

[RAJAH235]

You're welcome. :D L.

[Astroman]

Was this a full mask or part cut out mask one hole or two, can you elaborate how you did it? I may try tonight

[RAJAH235]

Andrew, See my post in Tips/ Techniques/Software etc under "Aperture Stop". HTH. :D L.
ps.Try diff. shapes to move/rotate, the diff. spikes.