Quote:
Originally Posted by JimmyH155
There's another star in the Trapesium, I think, called F. I'll be after that one next  |
Jimmy,
Under favourable conditions you should get both the E and F stars fairly easily in your 12" lightbridge.
Factors which help are:-
1) A well cooled and well collimated telescope
2) Orion is high in the sky with good elevation. Don't waste your time when it's low down.
3) Seeing is good. Good transparency also helps but IMO is not quite as important as good seeing.
4) A sharp eyepiece with good transmission. Your Hyperion is fine for this. A $30 Chinese Plossl isn't
so fine
5) The right magnification. You need enough magnification having regard to the aperture of the scope to separate the E and F components, without having too much magnification and causing them to disappear. The appropriate magnification depends on the aperture of the scope and on the conditions to a large degree. This is particularly important with smaller scopes in the 5" to 8" aperture class which are at their limit of resolution. Generally, the larger the aperture of the scope the lower the magnification required. In your 12" scope the 13mm Hyperion should be ideal, it gives about 115X. In my 10" scope I find 120X to be about the optimum. In the 18" Obsession anything over about 70X pops them all out.
The above having been said, I have seen many occasions when the 18" scope has not been properly cooled (its always well collimated
)and conditions have been poor and no amount of coaxing will pop E and F out. Consequently in your 12" scope don't expect them "all the time". Certainly with favourable conditions as indicated above, you should get them "a lot of the time".
The E star is adjacent to the A star and the F star is adjacent to the C star. This map should help you locate them
http://www.astropix.com/HTML/B_WINTER/TRAPEZ.HTM
If you find this an interesting target, another "multiple star" contained within an emission nebula is HN40. This is a multiple star in the centre of one of the dust lanes in M20 the Trifid Nebula in Sagittarius. This is well placed for observation at this time of year and in the coming months. At low power in your 12" scope you will see this as a double star. At higher power under favourable conditions you will occasionally get 4, but on most occasions 3 stars.
Clear skies
John B
there it was again - a tiny definitely orange star just to the west of one of the Trapezium stars. I rushed indoors and consulted my trusty Burnham's Celestial Handbook, and there, sure enough, bang in the right place, was star E. WOW and I saw it.
It must have been extra good seeing last night because I have never seen E before, and that is despite my neighbours lighting up my garden with spotlights slung from their deck... Do you think they were sitting out there - of course not. Have they heard of saving the planet I wonder???
Jimmy you should have no trouble with a twelve inch scope getting all six with reasonable magnification.
