Seperation of Sirius?

[BT Technologies]

Just for curiosity, I wanted to know if anyone knew the separation between Sirius and its companion? I have only once had the opportunity to see its companion under very steady skies. The immense illumination from Sirius makes it difficult if not near impossible to see the "pup" star!!


TIA!!

[clydec]

Originally Posted by BT Technologies

Just for curiosity, I wanted to know if anyone knew the separation between Sirius and its companion? I have only once had the opportunity to see its companion under very steady skies. The immense illumination from Sirius makes it difficult if not near impossible to see the "pup" star!!


TIA!!

The separation of Sirius and the Pup varies. Currently, it's about 7.6". If you've nabbed the Pup, you're one of the lucky ones. Sirius is about 10,000 times brighter than the 9th magnitude Pup, which of course, as you note, makes that rather large 7.6" separation just another over-rated stat!

Clyde

[BT Technologies]

Thanks Clyde. I knew that the pup was not super close but the sheer brightness of Sirius often hides it. The night that I saw it, the seeing was exceptional.

Originally Posted by clydec

The separation of Sirius and the Pup varies. Currently, it's about 7.6". If you've nabbed the Pup, you're one of the lucky ones. Sirius is about 10,000 times brighter than the 9th magnitude Pup, which of course, as you note, makes that rather large 7.6" separation just another over-rated stat!

Clyde

[pizwiz]

Allright, I hope I am not going to bore you guys to death with "old time tricks".
But here is one that worked for us old Refractor Nuts.
Since Aperture, and therefore resolution, was always a challenge, (3 inch was a good sized scope when i got started.) we came up with some gimmicks to go beyond what we had.
In the case of doubles, we put a six sided mask over the Optical tube. This caused the primary star to throw extra large spikes. If this effect was pronounced enough, it would reveal the dimmer companion poking out between the spikes since quite a bit of the primary's glare was diverted into the spikes. Thus artificially dimming it in comparison.
BTW, this is an image of Polaris through a 60mm Refractor

Adolph

[BT Technologies]

That is a great tip Adolph. I will have to try that with my TOA-130 and see what kind of results that I get.

Originally Posted by pizwiz

Allright, I hope I am not going to bore you guys to death with "old time tricks".
But here is one that worked for us old Refractor Nuts.
Since Aperture, and therefore resolution, was always a challenge, (3 inch was a good sized scope when i got started.) we came up with some gimmicks to go beyond what we had.
In the case of doubles, we put a six sided mask over the Optical tube. This caused the primary star to throw extra large spikes. If this effect was pronounced enough, it would reveal the dimmer companion poking out between the spikes since quite a bit of the primary's glare was diverted into the spikes. Thus artificially dimming it in comparison.
BTW, this is an image of Polaris through a 60mm Refractor

Adolph

[PJ Anway]

Originally Posted by BT Technologies

Thanks Clyde. I knew that the pup was not super close but the sheer brightness of Sirius often hides it. The night that I saw it, the seeing was exceptional.

I'm sure living in Florida helps you too. Up here at 46° north, Sirius never get far above the horizon, making it pretty difficult to get a steady view.

[pizwiz]

Brian,
I get the maximum effect when the hexagon cutout is large enough to fit comletely inside the dewshield.
I have experimented with different shapes, but most of them dimmed the image too much while a mask with more than six angles did not produce spikes big enough.
Make it so that you can easily rotate the mask and therefore the location of the spikes. You may be surprised what unexpected goodies can poke out from behind the glare, especially of the brightest stars.
In several cases I have located a second companion unexpectedly.

Adolph