Quote:
Originally posted by trufflehunter
The double Rod referred to was Antares. A bugger of a thing to resolve at the best of times, but a real buzz when you do.
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Quote:
Originally posted by RAJAH235
It splits very easily Ving, not like Sirius. Try your off axis aperture stop.
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I don't know that it splits quite as easily as what Rajah is trying to convince Ving of (no Ving you won't part it in the 60mm Wobblatronic
but you should in the 8" under good conditions)
I have spent a fair bit of time on Antares over the last few years and can offer the following tips on splitting it.
1) Good seeing
2) Good seeing
3) Good seeing
4) Wait till it gets fairly high in the sky near the zenith
5) Good quality Optics will always do it easier than fair optics.
6) Plenty of horsepower (magnification) (often over 250X)
The problem with splitting it is similar to splitting Sirius and the Pup (which I have never done BTW), its not the angular separation (currently about 2.6", I think) thats the issue it is the brightness of the primary which overpowers the secondary.
If your seeing is excellent it is splittable in smaller scopes fairly consistently at high magnification. I have split it in a 4" Takahashi FS102.
In my own 10"/F5 dob I have occasionally split it at medium power (120x to 150x when conditions are perfect) but more often than not have to go over 200X to get the secondary far enough out from the primary to see it.
When you split it, you are rewarded with one of the prettiest doubles in the sky. In the 10" scope the primary appears as gold/orange and the secondary as a deep blue. In smaller scopes the secondary appears emerald green.
A couple of other tricks that often work. For those with GPS scopes and GOTO, try splitting it in daylight. For those without GOTO try splitting it at twilight or dawn. Try the off-axis aperture mask as Rajah has suggested which reduces the brightness of the primary. Use an occulting bar. Take the image out of the FOV and let it drift back in, this sometimes will allow you to glimpse the secondary. Try an OIII filter or UHC filter to darken the primary, but then you dont get to see the pretty colours
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FWIW that 12" dob of Anthony's should split it on its ear in good conditions if the scope is collimated and cooled and Antares is well placed. Obviously the more aperture you have at your disposal and the better the quality of the optics, the less critical are the prevailing conditions and the elevation of the target. With marginal aperture favourable conditions help a lot.
CS-John Bambury