~Seeing Double - Grus~
Yet another southern constellation, so sorry to you internationals who live in the northern hemisphere... you could move here!
... and yet another animal to add to the zoo of space
Grus is latin for crane and yet doesn't even vaguely resemble one... who makes these up anyhow? I hear you ask. Well Grus was created by Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman between 1595 and 1597 and was considered part of the constellation Piscis Austrinus until about the 1600s' when it became a constellation in its own right. From light polluted skies of Campbelltown the constellation forms a vague cross shape which at the time I viewed it was laying on its side and looked rather squashed.
There are only 2 stars in Grus that are brighter than magnitude 3, Alpha Grus also known as Al-Na'ir is mag 1.7 and Beta Grus at mag 2.07. Besides binaries there is little here for the small scope owner. For the large scope owner and astrophotographer there are a whole bunch of mag 11-12 galaxies including the Grus Quartet.
1. hj5319 7.5/7.5 2.1”: a fairly easy split under reasonable conditions this showed as a yellowish primary and white secondary in my 8" f6 with a 7.5mm EP.
2. jc19 6.5/7.5 24.8”: go the mighty eels!!! This pair is not an actual binary according to some sources. Still, with a yellow primary and a blue secondary its a pretty sight.
3. i136 7.5/9 1.7”: close double thats going to need your focusing skills. I picked A to be white and B to be a pinky red... it was hard to determine colours tho. I’d suggest getting you mirror to ambient before trying. Also try for the grus quartet of galaxies right near by!
4. hj 5366 7.8/8 14.8”: an easy split white and yellow pair just a short hop from a whole bunch of really dim DSOs that I’ll never see in my scope! Very pretty.
5. i1467 7/8.5 0.5”: gosh! Why did I put this one in!!! Well for those with aperture try it... I didnt stand a chance! We are talking about 0.5” split here. I nabbed it from a list on the internet.
6. dun246 6/6.5 8.6”: an easy split and quite a stunner too. A is white and B has a bluish tinge. Quite bright.
7. dun248 6.5/7.5 26.5”: another easy one fer yas. White primary and a bluey secondary... off to hunt some more.
8. jc20 4.5/4.5”: a visual double that has binary components. The lower of the 2 has a secondary only 1.4" apart. I am coming back to this one under better conditions but I swear I got a split (or at least elongation). Near by is a small galaxy which I had a go at and managed.... at about 12 mag it was averted vision only (ngc 7476, mag 12.6).
9. HJ 5362 6.64/ 9.90 10.4”: just below beta grus’ brilliant red glow is this lil' one. A is white and B is a definite blue. Well worth a look.
Well that’s it. Where to next month I don’t know… but I’ll come up with something
Sharp splitting all!
