Last night I split Sirius. I've been trying for about three summers and was starting to think that I didn't have enough aperture/magnification. So I was wondering if anyone else has used similar equipment to split it or was this a bit of good luck?
I did it using a 12" Dob , a 5mm Pentax XW giving 300x magnification and a perfect ( by suburban standards ) night at about 10:30 when Sirius was about as high as it gets and perfect collimation and a slightly dirty primary mirror. Every now and then Sirius became nice and sharp and Sirius B showed itself. Very very exciting. I always thought that you need much more than 300x magnification. Now I think it has a lot more to do with the collimation and the seeing.
Binary stars are something special. I have a soft spot fo Alpha Centaurie A&B. Nice and easy and they have a period of 80 years so I hope I can see some change over a few years. I hope I can rember what they look like next year and the year after etc
I'm not sure if it helps taking Sirius outside of the eyepiece because Sirius B is very close to A and you may end up choosing the wrong side of Sirius , if you know what I mean. I would like some opinions on this. I suspect that it may be better to keep Sirius in the center of the eyepiece and keep trying to get the focus just right at just the right moment when the seeing is perfect. And I'm sure the diffraction spikes could easily hide B. Opinions please...
I'm not sure if it helps taking Sirius outside of the eyepiece because Sirius B is very close to A and you may end up choosing the wrong side of Sirius , if you know what I mean. I would like some opinions on this. I suspect that it may be better to keep Sirius in the center of the eyepiece and keep trying to get the focus just right at just the right moment when the seeing is perfect. And I'm sure the diffraction spikes could easily hide B. Opinions please...
Take a look at this site with the position of Sirius B.
A lot of good info there for you and others.
Great article, thanks Kev
Great to see our chances of seeing it improve over the next 20 or so years.
"...for the next three decades, beginning after about 1999, the faint companion will be moving (as seen from Earth) farther and farther away from the bright primary in its 49.9-year orbit around Sirius. "
weasner.com
I'm not sure if it helps taking Sirius outside of the eyepiece because Sirius B is very close to A and you may end up choosing the wrong side of Sirius , if you know what I mean. I would like some opinions on this. I suspect that it may be better to keep Sirius in the center of the eyepiece and keep trying to get the focus just right at just the right moment when the seeing is perfect. And I'm sure the diffraction spikes could easily hide B. Opinions please...
useing starry night you can see where it is apperent to sirius so you can take it just out of the eyepiece
there was some threads on this subject awhile ago and people had mentioned this way
Read the articles and tried a few things. Here's something that's missing from the info.*
There's no point in trying to keep Sirius A *just outside the eyepiece if you use a Dob. I.e a human and not a computer to guide. It just can't be done at high magnification (300 x in my case). No need to explain if you've tried it. So keep it in the middle.
Focusing on Sirius only works up to a point. Fine focusing is easier if you try to get the defraction spikes as narrow as possible because A is too big and fuzzy. It's essential really because Sirius B is extreamly close to one of the spikes. Well it is on mine anyway. My spider goes east west north south and B is just next to the East spike.
Whats the next tricky double you will do for?? 
