Dance of the Dwarfs

Krueger 60 A and B 

 I began observing and recording the position angle of Krueger 60 A and B also
called ADS15972 during the fall of 1978. In another 15.5 years I will have
observed these close orbiting red dwarf binary stars through one complete orbit.
This pair of stars also demonstrates an annual proper motion westward of nearly a
second of arc. Both of these stars are M class and are among the 40 nearest stars
to earth at just 13.1 light years. The current separation between the pair is 2.3”
of arc. In actual measurement the components are 9.2 AU apart which is about the
distance between the Sun and Saturn. The smaller component B is less than 10% the
mass of our sun and is famous for its irregular flare outbursts which can last for
10 minutes as the brightness doubles. The A component star is magnitude 9.8 and
the B component glows at magnitude 11.3. Both stars are in the constellation of
Cepheus about 45 minutes of arc from Delta Cephei which is famous as the prototype
for all Cepheid
 variable stars.
  
  Sketching:
  
  Date and Time: 9-23-2007, 5:10-5:45 UT
  Scope: 10” f/5.7 Dobsonian.  12mm eyepiece 121x
  8”x12” white sketching paper, B, 2B graphite pencils, scanned and inverted, star
  brightness adjustments using Paint
  Averted vision was a very useful aid in this sketch.
  Seeing: Pickering 8/10
  Transparency: above average 4/5
  Nelm: 4.8
  
  Frank McCabe