Seeing Double ~ Pavo
This months constellation for
seeing double is pavo. Thisis one of those constellations that have no real mediteraen mythology about them, mainly because this is from the southern hemisphere. Pavo is latin for peacock and the constellation was created in the 15 hundreds I believe by a dutch navigator.
Now just because there is no mythology behind pavo doesn’t make it boring, it is a host to a pile of good doubles and a really nice globular cluster (the starfish glob @ mag 7). There is only one star over mag 3 and that’s Alpha Pav. shining brightly at mag 1.94 (ish). The peacock is also a host to a bunch of mag 11-12 galaxies but these are out of reach of most of us.
Anyhow, on to the doubles…
1. HJ 5193 1.90/ 9.14 248" / good olde alpha pav. she is the birghtes star in the constellation and a double, and so our starting point. A is a brilliant white while the substantially dimmer B is red....
2.HJ 5193 9.20/10.50 16.7" /and now heres the interesting part... hj5193 is actually a tripple system. thinking of 3 star twirling around eachother is mind boggling hey! part C is rather dim but most people should be able to get it. i wasnt able to get any colour out of this third part but found it easy enough.
3.HJ 5171 6.94/ 9.75 17.5"/20.3" / another 3 part or triplet... aint pavo full of suprises! A,B and C forma a pretty triangle. A is white and B and C could be yellow or red, but due to a bright moon and poor seeing i guess they could have been any colour. Tell me what you find.
4.HJ 51637.73/ 8.44 1.3" / heres a close double for ya. if the seeing holds for a split second like it did for me then you wont need to use a barlow. While i didnt get a clean split i could still see the diference in colours, A is white and B is yellow... good luck
5.HJ 5132 7.61/ 9.74 21.6" / only just able to see this one, its not close or anything so maybe it was trickery of the eyes, give it a go.
6. HJ 5085 7.62/ 9.07 2.7" / a double in a glob! the famous pavo globular cluster or starfish glob as it is also know is home to this pair. even in light pollutionand a bright moon this glob is a stunner. you will see the double on the outskirts. A is white and B is blue.
7.MLO 5 7.00/ 9.06 4.7" / fairly tight piar of bright yellows well worth the visit...
well i am afraid thats it for pavo. there are of course a whole lot more doubles to see but time is not on my side this time. never the less i have left some gems for you to hunt down and i hope you enjoy them
sharp splitting to you all
