Sunday, September 19, 2010

Double Star - 32 Eri (Eridanus)

-Scope: Edu-Sci 50mm refractor


Double star 32 Eri (Eridani), not an easy double to split with my 50mm but managed to get a clear separation if observed carefully. After getting my focus right on my second try, I can get a clean split with a hint of colours. Separation for this pair is about 7.9"

Splitted this pair with a 4mm eyepiece, the brighter of the pair is very faint yellow and the fainter pair, a hint of blue. And what a satisfying double given my average seeing condition tonight.

Try this double with your small telescopes and see if you can get the fainter star to show up as green hue (see below).

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Info from web:

32 Eridani is an attractive but little-known pair lurking in the dim expanse of Eridanus due west of Orion’s Belt. Its 5th- and 6th-magnitude components are set 8 arcseconds apart and display lovely pale topaz-yellow and sea-green hues that are evident in a 3-inch telescope and are truly striking in a 6-inch scope at 50x. Italian astronomer Angelo Secchi described this pair’s colors as “magnificent, superb” — and they are! Try cranking the magnification up to 40x per inch of aperture to see this pair’s beautifully tinted diffraction disks.