Category: Star

A Colorful Double

Almach

Almach (Gamma Andromedae) a colorful double star
Sketch and Details by Sebastian Lehner

Almach – Colorful Double

Object Name: Gamma Andromedae, Almach
Object Type: Double Star
Location: Erbendorf, Bavaria
Date: July 22nd 2007

The double star system Gamma Andromedae – or Almach – as it is also
called, is always worth a visit, when it is riding high in the sky
during long autumn nights. The couple provides a wonderfully rich color
contrast with the main component glowing in a golden-orange and the
smaller component in a blue-green color. The two stars, which are 350
light years away, are seperated by approximately 10 arcseconds and
can thus be easily viewed even with smaller telescopes.

The drawing was made with pencils on white paper, then scanned and
processed digitally in photoshop.

The telescope used was a TAL 6″ f/5 Newtonian on a Vixen GP mount.

Sebastian

Xi Bootes in Little Cygnus

Xi Bootes

Xi Bootes, Double Star
Sketch and Details by Math Heijen

On the evening of May 9th 2008 I observed a series of double stars in Bootes. The highlight for me that night was Xi Bootes. This colorful double lies about 8 degrees east of Arcturus. The Yellow primary star shines at magnitude 4.8 and it’s magnitude 7.6 orange companion lies at a position angle of 315°. The separation is 6.3″. Through the 17mm Nagler the double looks fairly close (scale from “Double Stars for small Telescopes” by Sissy Haas). When looking at Xi Bootes through the 17mm Nagler, the double seems to be part of an asterism that looks like the constellation Cygnus, only much smaller. Xi Bootes is placed at the position of Deneb, the tail of the swan. We decided to call the asterism “Little Cygnus”. On the sketch below the asterism is oriented West-East. At the tail you find Xi Bootes. Three white stars oriented north-south represent the wings of the little swan. A white star to the east (accompanied by a dimmer companion) is at the position of the head of the swan. The yellow star to the eastern edge of the field of view is just a bright field star. It is no part of the “Little Cygnus” asterism.

The sketch of “Little Cygnus ” and Xi Bootes was made using the 300mm f/5.3 Dobson and a 17mm Type4 Nagler. The magnification is 94x and the field of view is 52′. At the telescope I made a sketch on white paper using a HB led-pencil. This sketch was scanned and processed in Photoshop. I colored the double star (and the field star to the east) using the tutorial described on the website of Jeremy Perez ( http://www.perezmedia.net/beltofvenus ). This is the first time I experimented with this technique, and I am very pleased with the result. It produces a realistic image and resembles what you see through the eyepiece. In the future I will try to use this technique for sketching more double and multiple stars.

Nice Easy Double

29 Aquarii

29 Aquarii, An Easy Double
Sketch and Details by Wade V. Corbei

29 Aquarii (DX Aqr, 29 Aqr, HR 8396) is a nice equal magnitude double star located in the constellation Aquarius. This is an easy split at around 150x, but at higher magnifications there is an apparent color contrast between the two. The primary displays as a whitish/blue and the secondary shows an obvious orange (the secondary is actually classified as an Orange Supergiant).

A nice easy double for those interested in double stars that can be cleanly split without excessive magnifications, and this double pretty much sits alone in the sky with very few background stars in the same field of view.

A Swarm within a Swarm

NGC 1502

NGC 1502 and Struve 485
Sketch and Details by Eric Graff

NGC 1502 and STF 485
Open Cluster and Multiple Star in Camelopardalis
Parks Astrolight EQ6 • 6″ f/6 Newtonian Reflector
7.5mm Parks Gold Series Plössl • 120x
Field of View 26′
31 December 2007 • 03:30-04:30 UT

Dangling off the southern end of Kemble’s Cascade, one the sky’s better-known asterisms, you will find the open cluster catalogued as NGC 1502. Easily visible, even at low magnifications, as an unmistakable glittering mass of stars, the cluster is dominated by a brilliant pair of 7th-magnitude snow-white suns separated by 18″ of arc in position angle 305°. These two are the principal members of the multiple star STF 485 (ADS 2984; CCDM 04078+6220).

Increasing the magnification brings better definition and resolution to NGC 1502. A 7.5mm G.S-5 Plössl yielding 120x provided the most pleasing view in my scope, and this was used in the sketch presented here. All of the cluster stars appear to be pure white (or nearly so). The brightest stars in the cluster are concentrated into a narrow east-west band of stars spanning the cluster’s 8′ diameter. Most of these are members of the STF 485 system.

The Catalogue of Components of Double and Multiple Stars (CCDM) lists 16 members for STF 485 with magnitudes ranging from 7 to 14; these are designated (A-P) as indicated on the inset. Components C, E, F, G and M are very challenging due to faintness (mags 11.9-14.1) and proximity to A and B; the remaining members are quite easy by comparison. Component B is also a variable star, designated SZ Camelopardalis. It is a Beta Lyrae-type eclipsing variable with a period of just under 2.7 days and a magnitude range from 7.00 to 7.29. While component A might seem like a convenient comparison star for making magnitude estimates of SZ, it is suspected of being variable as well, with an observed amplitude of about 0.1 magnitude. Components H, I and J are also catalogued separately as STF 484 (ADS 2982); components K and L are catalogued separately as Holmes 3 (ADS 2989).

William Herschel discovered NGC 1502 on November 3, 1787 with his 18.7-inch reflector. It is sometimes called the Golden Harp Cluster; it contains 63 member stars and lies 2,650 light years away in the direction of Camelopardalis. Its age is estimated at 5 million years.

Mirach and its Ghost

NGC 404

Mirach and NGC 404
Sketch and details by Frank McCabe

As the constellation Andromeda climbed high in the eastern sky, I used this opportunity to sketch dwarf spiral galaxy NGC 404 and nearby second magnitude star Beta Andromedae (Mirach). Beta Andromeda is a red giant star of class M0 III and 199 light years from us. This bright star appeared golden to my eye and is a mere 6.5 arc-minutes from its “ghost” the galaxy NGC 404. This 10th magnitude galaxy has been classified as E0, lenticular (a category between elliptical and spiral) and more recently spiral class S0. At a distance of 10 million light years it is 50,000 times further away than Mirach. William Herschel described NGC 404 as a nebula in 1784. The position of galaxy is approximately R.A 1hr 10min, Dec. +35° 37’.
I made this sketch in the early morning of August 31, 2008.

Sketching

Date and Time: 8-31-2008, 5:10-5:40 UT
Scope: 18” f/5 Dobsonian. 175x
8”x11” white recycled sketching paper, 4B soft charcoal pencil, HB hard charcoal pencil, blending stump, eraser shield, drawing re-sketched indoors because of much smudging, scanned and inverted, some star magnitude adjustments made after scanning using Microsoft Paint.
Seeing: Pickering 7/10
Transparency: Above Average 4/5
Nelm: 4.8

Frank McCabe

A Smoky Cascade

IC 1318(c)

IC 1318(c)
Sketch and Details by Eric Graff

Object Name: IC 1318(c) (West Extension)
Also Known As: LBN 236, LBN 240, LBN 241, DWB 52, GAL 077.7+03.4
Object Type: Emission Nebula
Constellation: Cygnus
Right Ascension (2000.0): 20h 17.1m
Declination (2000.0): +40° 50′
Magnitude: —
Size: 40′ x 25′

Date/Time: 27 July 2008 • 05:45 to 07:00 UT
Location: Oakzanita Springs, San Diego Co., California, USA
Telescope: Parks Astrolight EQ6 • 6″ f/6 Newtonian Reflector
Eyepiece/Magnification: Parks 20mm Gold Series Plössl • 45x • 70′ FoV
Filters: Lumicon OIII
Conditions: Clear, Calm, 64°F
Seeing: Pickering 6-7
Transparency: NELM 6.4; TLM 14.2

This cascade of stars shrouded in smoky wisps of nebulosity caught my attention as I made the star hop from Gamma Cygni to IC 1318(b). The cascade ends at the sparse open cluster Collinder 419, whose brightest star is a close pair known as Struve 2666 (6.0, 8.2; 2.6″; 245°). Just northeast of this cluster the narrow stream of nebulosity blossoms into a hazy morass of delicate nebulosity – this is IC 1318(c). Fifth magnitude HD 193092 blazes with a reddish-orange light to the south.

Sketch Info: Nebulosity sketched with graphite applied with artist chamois and blending stump on 24# paper in 7½” circle. Stars with pencil and ink, cleaned up digitally (and colorized) in Microsoft Picture It!

Dark Nebula Nexus

M20

M20 – The Trifid Nebula
Sketch by Kiminori Ikebe

Mr. Ikebe observed and sketched this view of M20 using a 50 cm Dobsonian at 220X.

M20, The Trifid Nebula, is a famous and beautiful target for astrophotographers and visual observers alike. The red emission nebula contains a young star cluster at its center, and is surrounded by a blue reflection nebula that is most noticeable at the northern end. It’s distance is not well agreed upon, and is listed anywhere from 2,200 light years (Mallas/Kreimer) to 9000 light years (Jeff Hester). Its magnitude estimate is also wide, and is listed from 9.0 (Kenneth Glyn Jones) to 6.8 (Machholz). Part of the magnitude difficulty comes from the very bright triple-star system at the heart of the nebula.

The dark nebula that crosses the Trifid was cataloged by Barnard and listed as B 85. The object was originally cataloged by Charles Messier in 1764, when he described it as a cluster of stars.

Binoculars Along the Spine of the Scorpion

Antares, M4, & Rho Oph
Antares, M4, and Rho Ophiuchi
Sketch and details by Michael Rosolina

Scorpius is well placed right now for northern hemisphere observers and holds many beautiful and interesting objects. Scanning the constellation with widefield binoculars can be particularly rewarding. I found that I could see this trio all at the same time with my 15×70 binoculars. They make an interesting combination: Antares, a red giant, Rho Ophiuchus, a bright binocular triple, and Messier 4, a globular cluster containing countless stars.

The sketch was done in the field with 2B and HB pencils and a stump loaded with 4B graphite for M4. I then scanned and inverted the sketch digitally, colorised Antares, and added a little blur (5%).

There are many images of this region–time exposures showing the stars embedded in glowing clouds of gas and dust. None of that can be seen visually, but the binocular view has its own beauty.

Michael Rosolina
Friars Hill, WV USA

A Double and a Trifid

M20

M20 (The Trifid Nebula)
Sketch by Eiji Kato

M20, The Trifid Nebula, is a famous and beautiful target for astro-photographers. The red emission nebula contains a young star cluster at its center, and is surrounded by a blue reflection nebula that is most noticeable at the northern end. It’s distance is not well agreed upon, and is listed anywhere from 2,200 light years (Mallas/Kreimer) to 9000 light years (Jeff Hester).

The dark nebula that crosses the Trifid was cataloged by Barnard and listed as B 85. The object was originally cataloged by Charles Messier in 1764, when he described it as a cluster of stars. William Herschel assigned catalog numbers to 4 different parts of the nebula (H IV.41, H V.10, H V.11, and H V.12).