[The Mekon (John Briggs)]

I have been trying to split Beta Phoenix for almost 30 years. Commencing when I took delivery of an Astro-Physics 130EDT in 1991. I was using Burnhams as a guide back then and it lists this star as 4-4 @ 1.4". At the time, I could not understand why I could not split this star as I was doing so on other stars down to 0.9". Of course the true separation was perhaps less than 0.5" so not surprising. My last observation I have logged is from 25th Dec 2018 where I noted that I could make out elongation in my 18" at 430x. And that is what I reckon you will need. It is getting wider, so I may split this star one day!