![](\"http:\/\/www.perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/archives\/images\/2006\/img2006032501_M40.jpg\")
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Observation Notes:<\/b><\/p>\n
![](\"http:\/\/www.perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/archives\/images\/2006\/img2006032501_M40finder.jpg\")
I wasn’t planning on doing a full-blown observation and sketch of M40 when I did. Which is to say: at the All Arizona Messier Marathon. I hadn’t done any research on it before heading 250 miles south to Arizona City. When the time came to find it, I realized all too late that my star atlas didn’t have it marked, and the rough finder chart I was using just plopped me in the general vicinity. Well, there are several double-star candidates in the area, folks. I didn’t know which was which. I kept panning around the area thinking ‘Oy, one of these doubles has got to jump out at me right?” mmmm..no. After listening to me gripe about it for going on a half hour, my observing neighbor, John Moschinger, slewed over to it. I had a look through his scope and Telrad finder, but I just wasn’t 100% certain.<\/p>\n
So I horsed around with it for another twenty minutes, when out of the darkness, a figure appeared, silhouetted by the Tucson light dome. The figure sounded an awful lot like Don Machholz. I announced to the figure that sounded like Don Machholz that M40 was about to whup me. The figure offered to take a look, so I re-centered the view and he confirmed that yup, I had M40 in the view. He described which double star was the real deal. So I took a look, and precisely centered on what he had described. He took another look and said I had it. BAM! So you know what he says next, right? “Oh by the way, I’m Don Machholz.” …to which I said, “Yeah, I kinda figured, Don. It’s me, Jeremy Perez from Flagstaff…(the geek who took a picture of you and Brent earlier)…Uhm…Thanks man, you made my night! Thankyou thankyou thankyou!<\/b>“.<\/p>\n
So anyway, I couldn’t move on without sketching that crafty pair of stars. (See the double dead-center in the sketch.)<\/p>\n
Factoids<\/b><\/p>\n
This double star was catalogued by Charles Messier in 1764. He found it while searching for a nebula that was wrongly reported in the area by Johann Hevelius. The two stars are currently separated by 49″. The latest data on the pair, according to Richard L. Nugent<\/a> concludes that they are an optical pair of stars, rather than gravitationally bound.<\/p>\n
| Subject<\/b><\/td>\n | M40 (WNC 4)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Classification<\/b><\/td>\n | Double Star<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Position*<\/b><\/td>\n | Ursa Major [RA: 12:22:16.1 \/ Dec: +58:05:04]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Separation*<\/b><\/td>\n | 49″\/<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Brightness*<\/b><\/td>\n | 9.0\/9.3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Date\/Time<\/b><\/td>\n | March 25, 2006 – 11:00 PM \n(March 26, 2005 – 06:00 UT)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Observing Loc.<\/b><\/td>\n | Farnsworth Ranch, Arizona City, AZ<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Instrument<\/b><\/td>\n | Orion SVP 6LT Reflector (150 mm dia.\/1200 mm F\/L)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Eyepieces\/Mag.<\/b><\/td>\n | 32 mm (37.5X)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Conditions<\/b><\/td>\n | Partly Cloudy, Breezy, 61\u00c2\u00b0F<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Seeing<\/b><\/td>\n | 3\/10<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Transparency<\/b><\/td>\n | Mag 6.0+ NELM<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| *Sources<\/b><\/td>\n | Orion’s The Sky Software \nNGC\/IC Project<\/a> \nSEDS<\/p>\n |