October 9, 2006: To help provide a consistent style for my double star sketches, the above sketch is a digital update to the original sketch.
Observation Notes:
This doubly was very close to a brilliant star. The primary is orange. The secondary is white. PA appears to be 240° with a separation of 1′. The bright star to the east is yellow orange and about 8′ away. After checking the listed data, I have to say ‘oops’. It looks like the brilliant star to the east is actually the primary. With that being the case, PA in my sketch looks to be about 265° which is a lot closer to the listed value of 291°. Separation of 480″ in my estimate is a lot closer to the listed value of 378″. Still a pretty ugly estimate though. :-/
| Subject | Double/Multiple Star: Alpha Capricornii (STF 51) |
| Classification | Multiple Star |
| Position | Capricornus [RA: 20:18:06 / Dec: -12:33]* |
| Separation* | 378″ |
| Magnitudes* | 3.6, 4.2 |
| Position Angle* | 291° |
| Date/Time | 09/13/05 – 12:30 AM |
| Observing Loc. | Flagstaff, AZ – Home |
| Instrument | Orion SVP 6LT Reflector (150 mm dia./1200 mm F/L) |
| Eyepieces/Mag. | 10 mm + 2X Barlow (240X) |
| Conditions | Clear, breezy, 55°F |
| Seeing | 4/10 |
| Transparency | NELM Mag 4.8 |
*Based on published data.
saw them this morning at 6 am. spectacular! they were so bright in the southeastern sky I thought it was a UFO or plane – after they didn’t move I knew it had to be a star cluster – two stars – really cool