None of the images you are about to see were captured by hand, film or imaged
at the telescope. All were rendered on a home PC using dblCalc. What's dblCalc you ask?
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Albireo
Albireo is unquestionably one of the finest examples of a wide bright double of color visible from northern hemisphere skies. This dblCalc view renders the brighter 3.1 magnitude primary as "gold" while treating the 5.1 magnitude secondary as pure blue. The combination, as can be seen at right is rapturously stunning!
Designation: Beta Cygni
Right Ascension: 16h:29.2m
Declination: 27d:57.6m
Primary Magnitude: 3.1
Secondary Magnitude: 5.0
Separation: 34"
Position Angle: 54d
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Cor Coroli
Lovers of doubles of color frequently turn to "Charles' Heart" during the late winter and spring to recapture the wonder of Albireo - itself seen best in late summer and early fall. Cor Coroli's 2.9 magnitude primary however has a whitish - as opposed to golden cast to it - although the fainter 5.5 magnitude secondary displays the same enigmatic qualities seen in Albireo-B.
Designation: Alpha Canes Venatici
Right Ascension: 12h56.0m
Declination: 38d19.0m
Primary Magnitude: 2.9
Secondary Magnitude: 5.5
Separation: 19"
Position Angle: 228d
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Almach
Autumn's Almach comes very close to capturing the same splendour of the lights
as Albireo and Cor Coroli. However, the tighter separation of the pair and the
increased brightness of the primary tends to diminish the strong sense of color contrast seen in its confrere.
Designation: Gamma Andromedae
Right Ascension: 02h03.9m
Declination: +42d20m
Primary Magnitude: 2.5
Secondary Magnitude: 5.0
Separation: 10"
Position Angle: 63d
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Ras Algethi
Ras Algethi is not the brightest star in the Greater Hero - but it is certainly the prettiest double... Like autumn's Almach, early summer's Ras Algethi shows a lovely color contrast (orange and green) along with tightish pair spacing. Any amateur scope will resolve the pair and this - joined with the relative brightness of both components - allows any amateur scope to reveal the lovely contrast in coloration...
Designation: Alpha Herculus
Right Ascension: 17h14.7m
Declination: +14d:23m
Primary Magnitude: 3.0
Secondary Magnitude: 5.5
Separation: 4.6"
Position Angle: 104d
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Rigel
Rigel IS the Great Hunter's brightest star and - under better than unusual observing conditions - a scope possessed of modest aperture but decent optics - will reveal that "Rigel is not alone" in the universe. On such occasions - when the usual atmospheric shenaningans settle out - the image to the right gives us more than a hint of the "two kind of blue" view revealed to the patient eye of the questing observer...
Designation: Beta Orionus
Right Ascension: 05h:14.5m
Declination: -08d:11m
Primary Magnitude: 0.3
Secondary Magnitude: 7.0
Separation: 9.4"
Position Angle: 202d
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Rigil Kentaurus
Few northern latitude observers have had the opportunity to travel far enough south to get this breathtaking view of two of Sol's nearest neighbors in the space-time continuum. So we here at Astro.Geekjoy figure to put "wings on our heals" and have a look at spectacular Rigil Kentaurus...
Designation: Alpha Centauri
Right Ascension: 14h39.6m
Declination: -60d50m
Primary Magnitude: 0.1
Secondary Magnitude: 1.3
Separation: 17.9"
Position Angle: 217d
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Antares
Some tight southern sky disparate pairs are susceptible of resolution from
even temperate northern hemisphere locales. At 37 degrees north, the view at right
however is about as good as it gets!
Designation: Alpha Scorpii
Right Ascension: 16h:29.2m
Declination: -26d:12:36m
Primary Magnitude: 1.0
Secondary Magnitude: 5.4
Separation: 2.9"
Position Angle: 270d
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Delta Cygni
Well folks here's a view you don't get very often! Close, disparate Delta Cygni
paired with that faint secondary juxtaposed against the primary's first diffraction
ring. Easy split? Sure. But you gotta have both the sky and the scope. Delta's duplicity was first revealed to F.G.W Struve in 1826 - using you guessed it - the Great Dorpat Refractor of 240mm aperture. Nowaday's I've seen it resolved most satisfactorally
at 102mm's - but have only imagined the secondary's presence through the 80mm Pup achromat. By the way about one arc minute distant from Delta-A is a 12th magnitude C component (PA 66d) also first discovered by FGW. But you won't see triples in this version of dblCalc!
Designation: Delta Cygni
Right Ascension: 19h45m
Declination: +45°08'
Primary Magnitude: 2.9
Secondary Magnitude: 7.9
Separation: 2.5"
Position Angle: 229d
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Achird
There are, of course, numerous double stars of all types liberally distributed about the starry expanse of the heavens. Why just poking around in the Queen's Thrown you might notice a wide, disparate pair of color such as this beauty...
Designation: Eta Cassiopeia
Right Ascension: 0h 49.1m
Declination: +57°49'
Primary Magnitude: 3.4
Secondary Magnitude: 7.5
Separation: 12.2"
Position Angle: 315d
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Trapezium!
No this isn't a dblCalc rendition of the famed Trapezium. It's actually a dblCalc hack aimed at showing what is possible (and would be improved on) should some benefactor choose to commission the three or four work weeks of programming needed to create the software! (If you feel so called please email webmaster.)
Designation: Trapezium
Right Ascension: 5h35m
Declination: -05°23'
Primary Magnitude "C": 5.1
Other Components: D=6.7,A=7.2(v),B=7.9,F=10.2,E=10.3
Separation: CD=13.3",CA=12.9,CB=16.6,CF=4.3,CE=16.3
Position Angle (estimated): CD=125,CA=240,CB=210,CF=55,CE=220
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Seen enough yet?
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Of course not! More to come...
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