Sketch of Struve 2259
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Observation Notes:
Struve 2259 hit the top of my double star favorites the moment it came into view. It is a beautiful gold/blue pair at the heart of a starry bow-tie dominated by the brilliant white Nu Herculis. It looked best at 120X in a 35 arc minute wide field. I used this observation to demonstrate white ink/pastel-on-black sketching techniques in the June 2009 Drawn to the Universe column. The illustration above is generated using my usual digital double star technique. If you’re touring Hercules, take a moment to breeze over to Nu Herculis, drop southeast about 12 arc minutes and take in this magnificent sight.
| Subject | STF 2259 (ADS 10955) |
| Classification | Double Star |
| Position (J2000)* | Hercules [RA: 17 59 03.6 / Dec: +30 02 56.1] |
| Position Angle | 278° [My Measurement 2009.3] 277° [WDS 2008]* |
| Separation | 22″ [My Measurement 2009.3] 19.6″ [WDS 2008]* |
| Magnitudes* | A: 7.2; B: 8.4 |
| Spectral Types* | A: G8II-III; B: A1V |
| Date/Time | APR 5, 2009 – 1:30 AM (APR 5, 2008 – 08:30 UT) |
| Observing Loc. | Flagstaff, AZ – Home |
| Instrument | Orion SkyQuest XT8 Dobsonian (203 mm dia./1200 mm F/L) |
| Eyepieces/Mag. | Pentax XW10 (120X) Meade Astrometric EP + 2X Barlow (200X) |
| Conditions | Clear, light breeze |
| Seeing | 5/10 Pickering |
| Transparency | Mag 5.0 NELM |
| *References | The Washington Visual Double Star Catalog (Mason+ 2001-2009); Catalogue of Stellar Spectral Classifications (Skiff, 2009); SIMBAD |