Observations of objects of type "Multiple Star"

View Observations | Add Observations
Help | Discussion | Acknowledgements

Observations of objects of type "Multiple Star":

M40 (Multiple Star, in Ursa Major)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 127-mm other   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: fair   Seeing: fair
Time: Mon Mar 8 00:00:00 2021 UT   Obs. no.: 2235

Last evening, my brother Anthony & I observed several objects with our 5" computerized MAK. We were able to observe about six galaxies including M51. We were able to see its spiral affect coming out of its core. We also observed two planetary neubulas which looked blue. The two red stars, Hind's Crimson Star & The Garnet Star looked stunningly red. The grand finally was we were able to split Sirius & Sirius B. Right now, both stars are at their farthest separation so now is the time to look at this double.

Alpha Tau (Aldebaran) (Multiple Star, in Taurus)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 50-mm binoculars   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: fair   Seeing: fair
Time: Sat Oct 10 03:55:00 2020 UT   Obs. no.: 2206

Last evening I compared the colors of Aldebaran & Mars with my naked eyes & 10X50 Binoculars. To my surprise, Aldebaran looked red it its color while Mars looked orange. the difference was very obvious.

Alpha CMi (Procyon) (Multiple Star, in Canis Minor)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 50-mm binoculars   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: fair   Seeing: fair
Time: Tue Feb 4 02:00:00 2020 UT   Obs. no.: 2132

Last evening, I observed Canis Minor with my 10X50 binoculars. Procyon looks like a completely white star in binoculars which means it's slightly hotter than our own star. Above Procyon, is a 3rd magnitude hot blue star called Gomeisa. It has a very blue look to it in my binoculars. Earlier, I observed Betelgeuse again & it may be starting to get brighter. In my eyes it's now about 1.5 magnitude compared to 1.6 magnitude about 10 days ago. More observations to come.

Alpha Leo (Regulus) (Multiple Star, in Leo)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 50-mm binoculars   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: fair   Seeing: fair
Time: Wed Mar 13 00:15:00 2019 UT   Obs. no.: 2096

This evening, I was able to view Regulus & its faint double with my mounted 10x50 binoculars. Regulus' companion star is just west of Regulus when seen in binoculars.

Epsilon Lyr (Multiple Star, in Lyra)
Observer: Richard Pattie (e-mail: exmedia123@gmail.com)
Instrument: 5-inch other   Location: Laguna Beach, California, USA
Light pollution: severe   Transparency: good   Seeing: excellent
Time: Mon Sep 30 01:34:00 2013 UT   Obs. no.: 1894

I am new to viewing doubles and still fairly new to amateur astronomy. After reading other accounts of viewing Eps Lyr my report might stretch credulity, but I swear this was just the way it happened. I live in a heavily light-polluted area, but the air was uncommonly still that night. Using an Orion 5" mak-cass on an SE 6/8 mount, I went to Epsilon Lyrae 1, a double star I had not seen before. I was using a good 13mm eyepiece and, because the air was so stable, it looked like each individual star might also be a double! Added a Barlow, and at 6.5mm was able to confirm my suspicion. This should have been the absolute magnification limit, but I was on a roll, so I swapped in an ES 4.7mm ep and was rewarded with four perfectly still, perfectly round stars with a single diffraction ring around each, the fabled Airy disk. That was at 328x with my little 5" scope! I may never see these exact conditions again, so thought I'd report it. I did look it up afterward, and Epsilon Lyrae 1 is also called the "double-double." Incredibly, the two systems orbit each other. The separations are 2.2" and 2.4" respectively, which confirms that the resolution in my area was extraordinarily good.

Alpha Sco (Antares) (Multiple Star, in Scorpius)
Observer: Pino Nobile (e-mail: chrano@tin.it)
Instrument: 4-inch refractor   Location: Monza, Milan, Italy
Light pollution: severe   Transparency: poor   Seeing: good
Time: Thu Jun 15 21:00:00 2006 UT   Obs. no.: 1545

Antares was near local meridian. At 170x with Baader Maxbright binoviewer in my Sky-Watcher 100ED refractor the double is easy with companion clearly seen separate from red giant star with blak sky between the two. A very beautiful vision, colors were red and green.

M40 (Multiple Star, in Ursa Major)
Observer: Sriram.M.Gubbi (e-mail: sriram_gubbi@yahoo.co.in, web: http://dino.lm.com/artists/display.php?name=sriram_gubbi)
Instrument: 6-inch other   Location: Bangalore, Karnataka, India
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: good   Seeing: good
Time: Mon Nov 14 04:45:00 2005 UT   Obs. no.: 1453

This is the messier object which everyone neglects to see (even myself). I just made up my mind to update my messier observations and saw it and it was worth seeing. A good double star.

Gamma And (Almach) (Multiple Star, in Andromeda)
Observer: Lee S (e-mail: nospam-laspain123@aol.com, web: http://cgi.tripod.com/astro-cracker/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl)
Instrument: 2.8-inch equatorial reflector   Location: Atlanta, GA, USA
Light pollution: severe   Transparency: good
Time: Tue Oct 18 02:30:00 2005 UT   Obs. no.: 1369

The skies were clear and cloudless. I was observing with an Orion Observer 70 on an Alt-Az mount. I was able to find the double star Almach (Gamma Andromedae) by star hopping from Cygnus to Cassiopeia. The city lights make it difficult to see any but the brightest of stars and constellations. I was able to get the double star centered in my red-dot site and use the 10mm (70x) Explorer II to split it into two stars. One was clearly larger than the other. I thought the smaller one looked whitish-blue.

M40 (Multiple Star, in Ursa Major)
Observer: Emil Neata (e-mail: forvert2000@yahoo.com, web: http://www.nightskyinfo.com)
Instrument: 4.5-inch Dobsonian reflector   Location: No location given
Light pollution: light   Transparency: good   Seeing: good
Time: Mon Oct 10 23:00:00 2005 UT   Obs. no.: 1363

M 40 is a faint double star in Ursa Major, which found its way into Charles Messier's famous catalog by mistake. It is easily split into components at 36x, both stars are slightly red.

Alpha Sco (Antares) (Multiple Star, in Scorpius)
Observer: Sriram.M.Gubbi (e-mail: sriram_gubbi@yahoo.co.in, web: http://dino.lm.com/artists/display.php?name=sriram_gubbi)
Instrument: 6-inch other   Location: Bangalore, Karnataka, India
Light pollution: light   Transparency: excellent   Seeing: poor
Time: Sun Jul 3 22:15:00 2005 UT   Obs. no.: 1257

Antares appeared just as how Mars appears when it is far from earth. I'll try to split the double with the help of #80A Blue filter when I get it(If its possible to split with my scope).

Zeta UMa (Mizar) (Multiple Star, in Ursa Major)
Observer: Sriram.M.Gubbi (e-mail: sriram_gubbi@yahoo.co.in, web: http://dino.lm.com/artists/display.php?name=sriram_gubbi)
Instrument: 6-inch other   Location: Bangalore, Karnataka, India
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: good   Seeing: good
Time: Sun Apr 17 08:30:00 2005 UT   Obs. no.: 1255

The close Mizar doubles appeared much wide apart at some 87.5x magnification. At 41x, there was Alcor and yet another star in the same field of view along with Mizar.

Delta Cyg (Multiple Star, in Cygnus)
Observer: Giorgos Koronis (e-mail: giorgos.koronis@lies.com)
Instrument: 8-inch Dobsonian reflector   Location: Kalamata, Greece
Light pollution: light   Transparency: good   Seeing: excellent
Time: Sun May 23 23:40:00 2004 UT   Obs. no.: 1004

The air was steady.Using a 6.3 mm plossl (144x)the secondary was steadily visible between the difraction spikes.Nice binary and nice test for the steadiness of the air.

Alpha Sco (Antares) (Multiple Star, in Scorpius)
Observer: John A. Grant, Jr. (e-mail: jgrant@prcc.edu)
Instrument: 150-mm other   Location: Poplarville, Mississippi, USA
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: good   Seeing: good
Time: Sun Aug 11 22:00:00 2002 UT   Obs. no.: 673

The companion to Antares has been observed several times by me and others in my 150 mm f/12 Maksutov/Cassegrain telescope using a blue filter. We have repeatedly failed to see it in a 14 inch Schmidt-Cassegrain. (Actually we first saw it three years ago with the 150 mm scope through an overcast with Antares invisible to the naked eye.) On this recent evening the companion was readily visible to both my wife and me through the blue filter (150 mm scope) so I tried it with no filter at all. It was easy to see at higher powers (above 200) but not seen at about 144 X. It does look somewhat greenish as described in Burnham, but I think something closer to blue is more accurately descriptive.

Beta Ori (Rigel) (Multiple Star, in Orion)
Observer: Andrew (e-mail: rigg@optusnet.com.au, web: http://www.astronomy.xrs.net)
Instrument: 8-inch Dobsonian reflector   Location: Bunbury, Western Australia, Australia
Light pollution: light   Transparency: fair   Seeing: good
Time: Fri Mar 8 12:00:00 2002 UT   Obs. no.: 616

Rigel is the blue giant at the feet of Orion. It is a binary star which (apparently) is difficult to split, however on Friday night we were able to resolve its tiny companion star in the South West Astronomical Societies 8" dob. It was actually really interesting to see the tiny pin prick of light that is Rigel's companion star!

Alpha Leo (Regulus) (Multiple Star, in Leo)
Observer: michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 6-inch Dobsonian reflector   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: fair   Seeing: fair
Time: Thu Feb 14 02:00:00 2002 UT   Obs. no.: 610

Regulus is a Whitish looking star. At133x, it is a widely separated double. the main componant is a bright white star and the companion is a small faint star whos color I was not able to discern. Michael Amato

Beta Ori (Rigel) (Multiple Star, in Orion)
Observer: michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 6-inch Dobsonian reflector   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: fair   Seeing: fair
Time: Thu Feb 14 00:15:00 2002 UT   Obs. no.: 609

Rigel is a bright blue white star. At 200x, it is split into two closely bound blue white stars. one conponant is slightly larger and brighter than the other. Michael Amato

Theta Ori (Trapezium) (Multiple Star, in Orion)
Observer: Dave Mitsky (e-mail: djm28@psu.edu)
Instrument: 6-inch refractor   Location: Harrisburg, PA, USA
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: fair   Seeing: good
Time: Wed Jan 3 05:00:00 2001 UT   Obs. no.: 541

Tuesday night was a cold, damp, and somewhat windy one in south central Pennsylvania. Nevertheless, I spent many hours in the great outdoors taking advantage of a number of interesting celestial events. I had planned on going to the ASH Naylor Observatory, which is located northwest of Lewisberry, close to moonset to observe theQuadrantids but a call from fellow ASH member Bob Pody concerning a lunar sunrise ray that he had noticed near one end of Rupes Recta enticed me to pay him a visit first. Bob has a roll-off observatory in his backyard that houses a 152mm f/9 Astro-Physics Starfire refractor. When I arrived Bob was observing M42. After I informed him about the eclipse of the A star of the Trapezium we decided that it was about the same brightness as the B star. A theta Orionis 1, which is not the primary star of the Trapezium, is an eclipsing binary with a period of 65.4 days and a magnitude range of 6.7 to 7.6. By the time we swung the scope moonwards the lunar ray was ebbing but still discernible. Bob said that when he first noted the ray it extended into the shadow cast by the Straight Wall towards the crater Birt. The moon was slipping towards the western horizon and the seeing was rather poor so we turned to the planets. After a period of cloudniness we had excellent views of Jupiter intermittently during the transit of the Great Red Spot. Fine detail could be seen within the GRS using 7 and 9mm Pentax orthos. I counted a total of 13 cloud belts and zones. The NEB displayed several areas of darker coloration and an embayment. The split in the SEB was apparent. Trying to resolve Sirius (~5") proved to be futile. The Pup just wouldn't come out and play. <g> Thanks to the finder chart on the DVAA web site (http://www.dvaa.org/Charts/NovaPup1.html) I had my first look at the probable nova in Puppis at approximately 06:00 UT. The "new star" seemed to be considerably dimmer than ninth magnitude, which was its brightness at the time of its discovery.

Tuesday night was a cold, damp, and somewhat windy one in south central Pennsylvania. Nevertheless, I spent many hours in the great outdoors taking advantage of a number of interesting celestial events.I had planned on going to the ASH Naylor Observatory, which is located northwest of Lewisberry, close to moonset to observe the Quadrantids but a call from fellow ASH member Bob Pody concerning a lunar sunrise ray that he had noticed near one end of Rupes Rectaenticed me to pay him a visit first. Bob has a roll-off observatory in his backyard that houses a 152mm f/9 Astro-Physics Starfire refractor. When I arrived Bob was observing M42. After I informed him about the eclipse of the A star of the Trapezium we decided that it was about the same brightness as the B star. A theta Orionis 1, which is not the primary star of the Trapezium, is an eclipsing binary with a period of 65.4 days and a magnitude range of 6.7 to 7.6. By the time we swung the scope moonwards the lunar ray was ebbing but still discernible. Bob said that when he first noted the ray it extended into the shadow cast by the Straight Wall towards the crater Birt. The moon was slipping towards the western horizon and the seeing was rather poor so we turned to the planets. After a period of cloudniness we had excellent views of Jupiter intermittently during the transit of the Great Red Spot. Fine detail could be seen within the GRS using 7 and 9mm Pentax orthos. I counted a total of 13 cloud belts and zones. The NEB displayed several areas of darker coloration and an embayment. The split in the SEB was apparent. Trying to split Sirius (~5") proved to be futile. The Pup just wouldn't come out and play. <g> Thanks to the finder chart on the DVAA web site I had my first look at the probable nova in Puppis at approximately 06:00 UT. The "new star" seemed to be considerably more dim than ninth magnitude, which was its brightness at the time of its discovery.

Beta Mon (Herschel's Wonder Star) (Multiple Star, in Monoceros)
Observer: Serge (e-mail: astroguy@onaustralia.com.au)
Instrument: 8-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain reflector   Location: Perth, WA, Australia
Light pollution: light   Transparency: good   Seeing: good
Time: Thu Dec 21 18:10:00 2000 UT   Obs. no.: 540

Able to separate triple with no difficulties, all white color.

Epsilon Lyr (Multiple Star, in Lyra)
Observer: Dr. Winfried Melder (e-mail: wmelder@atos-group.com)
Instrument: 114-mm equatorial reflector   Location: Aachen, Germany
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: good   Seeing: good
Time: Mon Oct 16 19:45:00 2000 UT   Obs. no.: 539

As I was in testing of my new telescope (a VIXEN R114S newtonian on a GreatPolaris mount), I tried to get eps Lyr, the double double, which I wasn't able to split into 4 by maens of my older 76mm Newtonian.I just looked out to reach Wega, which was quite near the zenith (hard to look through the pointing glass). Even in the 6x30 searcher-scope eps Lyr was split into 2, well known from history(who ever wonders about this?). Then I tried to go for a 26mm PL eyepiece (x34) nothing happens. Then I tried 18mm ortho(x50 respectivly) nothing... bad luck ... ? not a good buy ??. Then I tried the last a 9mm ortho (x100) eyepiece and there it was. Great the better one was epsilon 2 Lyra which has almost the same mag but only 2,3" separation. The other one was a little harder, but to confirm my observation I could see that the directions of the doubles have a difference of about 90. I think I should look out for a 5mm eyepice to hence 180x for best conditions.

Alpha Tau (Aldebaran) (Multiple Star, in Taurus, Est. RaDec 04h35m55s, +16d30')
Observer: Dave Mitsky (e-mail: djm28@psu.edu)
Instrument: 4.5-inch equatorial reflector   Location: Harrisburg, PA, USA
Light pollution: severe   Transparency: good   Seeing: fair
Time: Fri Nov 6 01:57:00 1998 UT   Obs. no.: 415

Using my C4.5 at 36, 60, and 134x I watched Aldebaran reappear from occultation at nearly the center of the eastern (dark) lunar limb. After the event occurred I observed the moon, the Hyades, Jupiter, Saturn, Epsilon Lyrae, Albireo, M39, the Double Cluster, Stock 2, and NGC 457.

Alpha Tau (Aldebaran) (Multiple Star, in Taurus, Est. RaDec 04h36s, 16d31')
Observer: Dave Mitsky (e-mail: djm28@psu.edu)
Instrument: 8x56-mm binoculars   Location: Harrisburg, PA, USA
Light pollution: light   Transparency: good   Seeing: good
Time: Sat Sep 12 07:24:00 1998 UT   Obs. no.: 396

I witnessed the occultation of Aldebaran through a pair of 8x56 Ultimas while my friend Sandy Goodstein videotaped the event afocally through a 20" classical Cassegrain. The red giant star disappeared near the north pole of the moon at 07:24 UT and reappeared at 07:41 UT. After Aldebaran reappeared I took prime focus astrophotos through the 20" and its finder scope. Seeing Aldebaran pop back into view on the dark side of the terminator was quite a sight.

Alpha Sco (Antares) (Multiple Star, in Scorpius, Est. RaDec 16:30h/-26d)
Observer: Mike Pierce (e-mail: xtozaj@webtv.net)
Instrument: 3-inch refractor   Location: Marianna, Florida, United States
Light pollution: light   Transparency: good   Seeing: good
Time: Sun Aug 2 03:30:00 1998 UT   Obs. no.: 375

Spotted star with naked eye. Use 10x50 binos. Atmospheric disturbances caused Antares to blink, however, on occasion it's red hue was magnificent!! Hard to believe it's apparent magnitude given it's distance. Gibbous moon soon obscured the view. Too bad, Scorpius is quickly setting in the west within 3 and 1/2 hours of sunset. Fall asterisms to come!!!

Epsilon Lyr (Multiple Star, in Lyra)
Observer: Harold Williams (e-mail: clouseau@webtv.net)
Instrument: 10-inch Dobsonian reflector   Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Light pollution: light   Transparency: fair   Seeing: fair
Time: Sat Jun 20 16:00:00 1998 UT   Obs. no.: 364

The first really good sky conditions by Philadelphia standards in weeks and we have an almost full moon! I decided to give observing a shot anyway. I wanted to try for something I'd never seen in my scope and chose the Double Double. Since Vega was the only guide star visible, this was going to take some guesswork. At 60x, it took a few minutes of searchine to find the brightest two stars. Then, I dropped in the Barlow and went to 180x. At first, I thought I was out of luck. On a second, closer look I could just make out the companion stars. This may not be a big deal to many observers. But, considering the conditions I have to observe under, I was quite pleased to add this item to my personal list.

View 25 more observations...

Sort by:	Observation time Upload time
Sort order:	Forward Reverse
Object:
Type of object:
Constellation:
Observer:

View Observations | Add Observations
Help | Discussion | Acknowledgements

Questions? Problems? E-mail jbc@west.net

Object database created with dObjects

Logo created with Pixelsight