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Great minds think alike. my favourites are:
h3945 in Canis Major, mags 5 and 5.8, sep 27, lovely colour contrast which I see as yellowy-orange and blue. Like a southern version of Albireo.
70 Ophiuchus, mags 4.2 and 6.2, sep 5, yellow and red double, interesting because it has a period of only 88 years, so if you track it over the years, you will see some change in PA
sigma Orionis, mags 3.7, 8.8, 6.6, 6.3, seps 12, 13 and 42, wonderful multiple system, with an added bonus, with Struve 761 - a triple star system in the FOV
Antares in Scorpius, mags 1 and 5.4, sep 2.5, deep orange primary, blue secondary (some see it as green but when I split it cleanly, it is blue to my eyes). A difficult target, needs very steady seeing, and larger aperture and high magnification helps a lot.
Adhara in Canis Major, mags 1.5 and 7.5, sep 7. Both stars look Bluish-white to me. They are a fabulous contrast of magnitudes, reminiscent of Rigel.
I would also add that just two days ago I finally received my copy of "The Cambridge Double Star Atlas". I ordered it a couple of months ago on FishPond, it is the second print run. I cannot say enough about it. As far as double stars as concerned, it provides a list of 133 showpiece double stars with lots of interesting detail on each, and then plots 2400 of the best doubles in the sky over 29 sky maps by Will Tirion, then has a further appendix with data for each of those 2400 double stars. The maps are (naturally given their author) superb. The maps also contain 900 deep sky objects, and stars down to mag 7.5, so it is actually an excellent general purpose sky atlas. I am planning to use this Atlas for observing near full moon time each month, it has opened up a wonderful new window for me. Up until now, I have never had a star atlas which plots AND IDENTIFIES double stars, so double star observing has been less motivating - but now I can do some star hopping and track down these gems, now that the doubles are plotted and identified.
My only criticism of the star atlas is that the position angles are not provided (sometimes these can help with identification for tight doubles).
Happy observing!
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