Gee, it feels like a life time since the last double star challenge doesn’t it! I spent about 4 weeks away from the telescope while preparing for my marriage, getting married and having a honeymoon (oh and a cool of period). Finally though I got to do some observing and decided to hunt some doubles and galaxies in Sculptor!
SEEING DOUBLE ~ SCULPTOR
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Dribble:
Sculptor is a minor southern constellation which was introduced by Nicolas Louis de Lacaille. He originally named it after a sculptor's studio, but the name was later shortened.
Sculptor contains the Sculptor System (the Sculptor Dwarf ), a dwarf galaxy which is a member of the Local Group; and the Sculptor, the group of galaxies closest to the Local Group.
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I have to say, this is a great constellation! most of its stars are pretty faint tho and in my outter suburban backyard only a few of them are visible.
My initial double hunt in the constellation came up with primary stars whos secondaries were dimmer than magnitude 15, well beyond the capabilities of my telescope but with a bit of hunting I came up with a few gems… along with some nice galaxies of course. Apart from the regular galaxies I stumbled (well a planned stumble) across NCG134 which is a small galaxy but has plenty of detail especially when viewed with averted vision.
And heres the list …..
1.HDO 302 6.37/12.50 41" >a hard one to start with. the primary star is quiet easy to find being not too too far from formahault but the secondary is very dim and requires good condition with aperture to see. just barely perceivable in my 8" newt. A is a yellow colour and B was too dim to see colour.
2.I 693 8.04/ 9.21 1.3" >a faint close one, i didnt pick this for its prettiness. get yourself some good conditions and high powers. i wasnt really able to tell any colours but got elongation at 160 magnification and i am sure it would split with a bit of persuasion.
3.LAL 192 6.79/ 7.41 5.4" >gee its hard finding bright doubles in this constellation! anyhow this pair is quite bright and pretty to boot with the A star white and the B star yellow.
4.LAL 193 8.05/ 8.30 10.5" >another easy split these dimmish stars are an easy target in a small scope. it was a little hard to tell which was the primary and which the secondary but one looked white and the other a pale yellow. with bad transparency its hard to tell tho and the transparency was pretty bad when i found this one
5.HJ 5440 8.61/ 9.01 3" >this couple are slowly moving together. slow from our point of view that is. the primary is white and the secondary is a bright yellow... well as bright as mag 9 gets anyhow
6.BU 391 6.13/ 6.24 1.4" >a bright close white pair of stars. easily split at 160X. i personally cant tell them apart, can you?
7.HJ4517 6.28/9.41 8.1" >I almost over looked this one thinking for some reason it would be too hard. wrong! the A star is bright yellow and the much dimmer B star looked red but i could be wrong.
8.HJ3375 6.664/8.46 4.7" >a yellow and white combo worth looking at right in what was at the time of viewing, the dob hole. I went from NCG134 which is a pretty little galaxy (i got some detail on it) then swung the dob around almost 180 deg to get to this double just a small hop away... crazy! anyhow, check the galaxy out too
sharp splitting all!
a bit of filler and it'd be there huh! 
