Quote:
Originally Posted by The Mekon
Good observation Joe - I will pay that one. So many reports of Sirius B I count as "spurious" - especially those North American reports on CN where the elevation is low.
If you cannot easily pick up the companion of nearby Adhara with a mag of around 100X, then you will have no chance of Sirius B.
I have only seen it a couple of times with my masked off 18", and magnification of 292X
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On a work break so I though I would write on some of these nice responses.
Thanks John, Steve and Marc.
I agree that most reports would be spurious as it seems next to impossible at times to see it ; could it be ghosting etc. I found that I had to nudge the EP a number of times and use averted vision to confirm, also at times -it's sooo faint in comparison to the primary its not funny.
I would imagine that expecting to see it anywhere away from near zenith would be impossible visually.
When using the Mak I felt; if you cannot drive a Mak truck (pun intended)
through Rigels loverly pair as a test- then don't bother, as that is what i'd done just prior, and my wife was in awe of this pairs colour contrast.
Rigel has a similar separation so I though, why not try again!
The PUP appeared perhaps the colour of a tiny Uranus to my eyes past all the diffraction rings just were it should be -one of the biggest astro thrills of my life-When I was a youth circa 1980, I remember reading people with 6" unitrons had seen it- I only had the 4" (from AOS) at the time - of course no luck.
So Steve and all it's doable, but next to impossible at the same time,
most would be left in utter frustration I feel and just give up thinking what do I have to do; well nothing really, but WAIT for the right conditions, and I would say high magnifications well above 200x in apertures above 4" as it is very faint- seems less than 8.6 because of the primary.
So good luck all out there, and as usual- GIVE DOUBLES A GO!!
Cheers bigjoe.