Yeah I know…. I keep saying that I am not a dog person but here I am doing doubles in Canis Major.
Canis Major (CMa) is latin for greater dog and is a very prominent constellation in our skies at the moment. This particular dog is one of the two hunting companions of Orion, the other of course being Canis Minor. They both follow their master across the sky chasing Taurus the bull.
The only Messier object in CMa is M41, a massive open cluster which is well worth a look at. That said there are plenty of other open clusters in the constellation that are worth looking at too.
This constellation is host to the brightest star in the sky, Sirius. This star is a super brilliant -1.46 magnitude and is easily the easiest star to spot in the sky… It also happens to be a pretty famous binary. Sirius is also known as the dog star, which leads us on to our list for this constellation….
1. sirius -1.46/8.5 3.7" – this is an infamously difficult double to split and I will come back to it in a later edition of Seeing Double. Feel free to have a go though.
**2. shj73 5.79/7.38 17.8" - well after the near impossible sirius i thought i'd give you all an easy one. this is a lovely double thats fairly bright and not too far from sirius. the primary shows as an orange star and secondary blue in my telescope. very nice.
3. s541 7.48/5.53 23.3" - another easy one for you. this time we have 2 unequal yellow stars. yet another gem in the constellation of CMa.
4.hwe16 8/9.5 4" - a double within a cluster? how cruel. this one sits just onteh outskirts on the famous messier 41 which in its self it a great sight in any telescope. the main stars of this cluster are about magnitude 8 of which there are about a dozen, ther rest are much fainter. anyhow the double shows teh main star as a yellow and the secondray as a posible blue or white (it was hard to tell in my scope as the seeing wasnt great at teh time.).
**5. cpo7 1.5/7.5 7" - now heres a pleasant suprise. i have to admit that when i saw this in cartes du ciel i didnt think it would be that great but curiousity got the better of me. now i am glad i made teh stop... this one is really really nice! the primary is a brilliant white and the secondary while quite dim in comparison is just far enough away to be not drowned out thus making an easy but very prety split! oh the secondary looks red! wow! its a little carbon star!
6. bu20 7.83/9.9 3" - right near the infamously hard sirius is a small gem, bu20 is'like a hole heap of doubles her comprising or quite colouful stars. the A star is a brilliant orange and the B is blue creating a nice contrast.
7. stf997 5.27/7.14 3.6" - brighter than the last this couple is a bright yellow and its partner a clean white.and is an easy split for the novice.
8. lal53 7.73/7.61 3.0" - like a posum caught in headlights these 2 equal stars stare down teh EP at you. because they are equal or close enough to it this pair is an easy split. they are both white. if you do this one at low mag you will notice how nice the surrounding starfield looks.
9. bu199 7.21/8.05 1.7" - not put in here just for their closeness this pair do actually look quite nice. they are close however and require a bit of magnification. i got a clear split at 133 mag in seeing that was quite good (6-7/10).
10. coo36 8.51/9.29 9.4" - a fair spread on this here so low mags can be used. the primary looks white or blue and the secondary might be carbon... how about yu tell me!
Well thats it for this constellation. There are heaps more doubles there and I am amazed by how pretty some of these are. Happy hunting and sharp splitting!
** for images on these 2 click the link to my seeing doulbe blog in my signature
Yes, this is great David. Earlier this morning I got a yen to try some doubles in my binoculars and I printed off all your blog entries. So I've now added this one. I hope you have some easy ones amongst these.
I looked at Sirius a few times (through binoculars) and to be brutally honest, I find myself turning away from it because it is so bright, that it distorts my vision for the next 5 minutes when I finally move off it.
To try and find a double would be almost impossible I would think, but I will certainly give it a whirl
Well at the risk of blindness, last Saturday night I spent an honest 10 minutes looking at Sirius through my 20x80 binos, I can tell you without fear or favour that I could not and doubt that I ever will be able to resolve it as a double....but I promised you I would try and I did
