[bigjoe (JOSEPH)]

For the last few nights whilst observing the GRS and some of my favourite doubles, eg- Iota Cancri ,145 Canis Majoris, and Beta Monocerotis; I thought to myself, why not have a crack at Sirius B, AKA the "PUP".

The first two nights proved fruitless due to the less than excellent seeing required; still I persisted till midnight on the 24th at my house in Concord , even though work beckons in the morn.

The "PUP" being about some 10.5" from the primary. If you can imagine Sirius A being at the center of a clock then Sirius B would be at 9 oclock - East or a little North of that; but this depends on the scope and diagonal used, my 2" di-electric is reversed East-West but upright, so it would be on the West side then.

At magnitude 8.6 with the glare of Sirius A it should prove very difficult and it was.

I tried all kinds of tricks , including letting Sirius A drift in or out of the field of view so its glare would be mitigated and the PUP easier to see, filters including red, also observing at twilight so A would be less brilliant compared to B, even thought of making an obstruction mask.

Success though came at midnight when there were moments of steady seeing , just past the meridian; it was here that I inserted a 17.3 Delos in a 7" Mak I have - no luck, then I tried a 13mm type 6 Nagler, still no luck; it was then that I decided to use one of my old style Parks 5mm Gold series EP for a lark -VOILA!!

There it was very faint, and well outside the diffraction rings -unmistakable; this was at a mag of about 560x!!!

I had been looking in the diffraction rings mostly and not so much outside with all these EP'S, and this is what you must do plus highish power at this separation now, to literally separate the "PUP" from the primary.

Im glad I have finally bagged this elusive object after all these years of half hearted attempts.

It would be interesting to see if others, esp with apo's have a crack also.

PS: Ghosting sometimes appears and you think you have found it - but alas - so keep at it!

Cheers bigjoe.