{"id":397,"date":"2008-03-25T00:12:57","date_gmt":"2008-03-25T00:12:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/2008\/03\/25\/alpha_geminorum\/"},"modified":"2008-03-25T00:12:57","modified_gmt":"2008-03-25T00:12:57","slug":"alpha_geminorum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/2008\/03\/25\/alpha_geminorum\/","title":{"rendered":"Alpha Geminorum (Castor \/ Struve 1110)"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>
Click image for larger version<\/i><\/p>\n

Observation Notes:<\/b><\/p>\n

The fussy seeing provided a beautiful view of this brilliant double. The diffraction patterns shimmered and danced, adding a bit of challenge to viewing the pair, but also providing a mesmerizing, speckled light show. The primary of Castor appeared bright white while its companion hinted at a subtle blue.<\/p>\n

Measuring this duo using the Dobsonian scope was very challenging. I was attempting the PA measurement without my external dial, and although it was very tough to get the primary to drift through the exact center of the eyepiece, the measurement worked out fairly well–differing from Workman’s calculated 2008.2 value by only .8 degrees. The separation estimate was worse though, since I couldn’t track and allow the stars to hover over the scale. (My estimate of 6.9 arc seconds was a bit over compared to the calculated value of 4.5 arc seconds). <\/p>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Subject<\/b><\/td>\nAlpha Geminorum (Castor \/ STF 1110)<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Classification<\/b><\/td>\nMultiple Star<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Position (J2000)<\/b><\/td>\nGemini [RA: 07:34:35.7 \/ Dec: +31:53:16]*<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Position Angle*<\/b><\/td>\n59° [2008.2 my measurement]
58.2° [2008.2 Brian Workman’s DS Calculator]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Separation*<\/b><\/td>\n6.9″ [2008.2 my measurement]
4.5″ [2008.2 Brian Workman’s DS Calculator]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Magnitudes*<\/b><\/td>\n2.0 \/ 2.9<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Spectral Types*<\/b><\/td>\nA1V \/ A2Vm<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Date\/Time<\/b><\/td>\nMAR 19, 2008 – 10:45 PM MST (MAR 20, 2008 – 05:45 UT)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Observing Loc.<\/b><\/td>\nPhoenix, AZ<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Instrument<\/b><\/td>\nOrion XT8 (203 mm dia.\/1200 mm F\/L)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Eyepieces\/Mag.<\/b><\/td>\n10 mm Sirius Pl\u00c3\u00b6ssl + 2X Barlow (240X)
12 mm Meade Astrometric EP + 2X Barlow (200X)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Conditions<\/b><\/td>\nMostly Clear, Gibbous Moon<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Seeing<\/b><\/td>\n3-4\/10 Pickering<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Transparency<\/b><\/td>\nNELM Mag ~4.0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
*References<\/b><\/td>\nThe Washington Visual Double Star Catalog, 1996.0 (Worley+, 1996); Starry Night Pro Plus 5.8<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alpha Geminorum (Castor \/ Struve 1110)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56,57,59,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-double-star","category-sg-double-star","category-sgc-gemini","category-sketch-gallery"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":414,"url":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/2008\/06\/30\/struve_1659_the\/","url_meta":{"origin":397,"position":0},"title":"Struve 1659 – The Stargate","author":"jperez1690","date":"June 30, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Struve 1659","rel":"","context":"In "Double Star"","block_context":{"text":"Double Star","link":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/category\/double-star\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":510,"url":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/2009\/12\/05\/xi_scorpius_str\/","url_meta":{"origin":397,"position":1},"title":"Xi Scorpii (Struve 1998) and Struve 1999","author":"jperez1690","date":"December 5, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Xi Scorpii","rel":"","context":"In "Deep Sky"","block_context":{"text":"Deep Sky","link":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/category\/deep-sky\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":452,"url":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/2008\/12\/31\/19_lyncis_struv\/","url_meta":{"origin":397,"position":2},"title":"19 Lyncis (Struve 1062)","author":"jperez1690","date":"December 31, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"19 Lyncis","rel":"","context":"In "Double Star"","block_context":{"text":"Double Star","link":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/category\/double-star\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":420,"url":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/2008\/07\/20\/struve_2306\/","url_meta":{"origin":397,"position":3},"title":"Struve 2306","author":"jperez1690","date":"July 20, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Struve 2306","rel":"","context":"In "Double Star"","block_context":{"text":"Double Star","link":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/category\/double-star\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":451,"url":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/2008\/12\/26\/12_lyncis_struv\/","url_meta":{"origin":397,"position":4},"title":"12 Lyncis (Struve 948)","author":"jperez1690","date":"December 26, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"12 Lyncis","rel":"","context":"In "Double Star"","block_context":{"text":"Double Star","link":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/category\/double-star\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":507,"url":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/2009\/12\/01\/struve_1369\/","url_meta":{"origin":397,"position":5},"title":"Struve 1369","author":"jperez1690","date":"December 1, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Struve 1369","rel":"","context":"In "Deep Sky"","block_context":{"text":"Deep Sky","link":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/category\/deep-sky\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}