The majority of stars are double or multiple stars. Sometimes two stars appear very closely in the sky, but are only on the same line of sight; their distances differ considerably. These are called OPTICAL DOUBLE STARS.
Real PHYSICAL DOUBLE STARS belong together and are also called BINARIES. They are tied together by gravity and are in mutual orbit.
Source of the above text: The Cambridge Star Atlas by Wil Tirion; ISBN 0 521 80084 6
All my deep sky images can also be viewed as a slideshow.
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Omicron 1 in Cygnus. July 23, 2008 21:41 - 21:55 UT. Imaging: William Optics Zenithstar 80 ED II APO, f/6.8 [focal length 545 mm], Astronomik LRGB Filters; ATK16IC camera. Exposures: Lum 5x60s [1x1]; RGB 5x30 [2x2]; all unguided. TOP |
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Omicron 1 Cygnus: a nice double in blue and gold August 18, 2005 21:37 UT. TOP |
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Cygnus 61 July 15, 2008 23:27 - 23:48 UT Imaging: William Optics Zenithstar 80 ED II APO, f/6.8 [focal length 545 mm], Astronomik LRGB Filters; ATK16IC camera. Exposures: Lum 5x60s [1x1]; RGB 5x30 [2x2]; all unguided. Interesting information about Cygnus 61 here. TOP |
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Cygnus 61 September 13, 2003 22:30 - 22:37 UT. Interesting information about Cygnus 61 here. TOP |
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Albireo - Beta Cygnus July 15, 2008 22:51 - 23:14 UT. Imaging: William Optics Zenithstar 80 ED II APO, f/6.8 [focal length 545 mm], Astronomik LRGB Filters; ATK16IC camera. Exposures: Lum 5x120s [1x1]; RGB 5x60 [1x1]; all unguided. TOP |
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Beta Cygnus: the beautiful Albireo June 29, 2006 21:43 UT. Magnitudes 3.07 and 5.11. Separation 34.4 arc seconds. Imaged with LX200 10-inch f/10 telescope [focal length 2500mm]. TOP |
; ISOSpeedRatings - 200; FocalLength - 8.2000 mm.<br>
Post processing: K3CCDTools [dark frame subtraction] and Photoshop [slight curves and cropped to 640x480 pixels].<br>
Note: only one exposure; I also made about 15 more exposures after zooming in, but later it appeared that these frames were not well focused: I should have focused in maximum zoom of course ...
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Beta Cygnus: the beautiful Albireo August 30, 2004 21:19 UT. Magnitudes 3.07 and 5.11. Separation 34.4 arc seconds. Imaging: TAL-2M 6 inch f/8, Nikon Coolpix 995 with DCL-28 adapter, one exposure of 15 seconds. TOP |
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My best Albireo so far [left image] August 8, 2003 21:03 - 21:13 UT [prime focus, left image] and 20:43 - 2049 [focal reducer, right image]. TOP |
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Focal reducer: Brightness 50, Gamma 0, White Balance: auto, exposure 1/5, gain 5<br>
Prime focus: Brightness 50, Gamma 0, White Balance: auto, exposure 1/25, gain 33<br>
2x Barlow: Brightness 50, Gamma 0, White Balance: auto, exposure 1/25, gain 62<br>
3xBarlow: Brightness 50, Gamma 0, White Balance: auto, exposure 1/25, gain 80<br>
Post processing in Registax, touchup in Photoshop [I had to apply a soft blur on the Barlow images].'))
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Beta Cygnus: the beautiful Albireo: gold and blue July 11, 2003 21:51 - 22:41 UT. Collage of 4 different focal length images. TOP |
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Beta Cygnus: the beautiful Albireo August 14, 2002 21:27 UT. Beta Cygnus: the beautiful Albireo. RA 19:30.7 DEC +27 58; magnitudes [TYC 2133-2964-1] 3.07 and [TYC 2133-2963-1] 5.11. I really wanted to improve yesterdays image: the colours must be better! And I think indeed I improved. TOP |
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Beta Cygnus: the beautiful Albireo August 13, 2002 20:47 UT. Beta Cygnus: the beautiful Albireo. Magnitudes 3.07 and 5.11. Separation 34.4 arc seconds. My first attempt since October 15, 2001. The brightest component [the 3.07] is yellow, while the other component is blue. I have tried to capture these colours. TOP |
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Beta Cygnus: the beautiful Albireo On October 15, 2001 I captured my first real image: the nice double star Albireo, which I had admired visually for many nights already. The stars have beautiful colours: orange and blue/white. I used my QCVC camera, prime focus, with my experimental low profile eye piece holder. In the beginning of my imaging I often forgot to note the imaging details ... TOP |
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Epsilon Lyrae: the famous Double-Double July 20, 2007 22:41 UT. Imaged with LX200 10-inch f/10 telescope [focal length 2500mm], standard unmodified Philips ToUcam webcam. TOP |
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Epsilon Lyrae: the famous Double-Double August 2, 2005 21:11 UT. TOP |
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Three nice pairs of double stars in Cygnus July 18, 2007. Imaged with LX200 10-inch f/10 telescope [focal length 2500mm], standard unmodified Philips ToUcam webcam. Each object was imaged during 120 seconds at 15 fps. Because of the high turbulence only a few frames per AVI were acceptable, so I handpicked the best frame of each AVI. No further post processing: you see the stars as imaged. Seeing: 4/10, transparency 6-7/10. TOP |
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Rigel [Beta Orionis] with companion March 1, 2006 18:38 UT. TOP |
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Mizar and Alcor April 15, 2004 22:12 - 22:19 UT. It is interesting to see that Mizar - the brightest of the pair - is a double star itself [Mizar A and Mizar B], which is revealed by the twin horizontal diffraction spikes. TOP |
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Brightness 30, Gamma 100, White Balance: auto, exposure 0.5 seconds, gain 3<br>
Used stack: 19 frames, post processing in Registax, touchup in Photoshop.'))
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Gamma Delphinus August 9, 2003 21:42 - 21:45 UT. TOP |
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Cor Caroli March 16, 2009 21:03 - 21:05 UT. Imaging: LX200 10 inch f/10 telescope [focal length 2500mm]. Standard ToUcam Pro webcam in normal mode @ 10 fps during 3 minutes giving 180 frames, Baader IRB filter. TOP |
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Cor Caroli March 6, 2009 21:13 - 22:22 UT. Imaging: LX200 10 inch f/10 telescope with Meade 3.3 Focal Reducer operating at f/4 [focal length 1015mm], ATK16IC camera, Astronomik LRGB filters. Exposures: Lum 18x10s [1x1]; RGB 8x5s [2x2]; all unguided. TOP |
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Cor Caroli April 18, 2003 23:19 UT. Cor Caroli, the Alpha star of Canis Venatici. This early image is waiting to be replaced with a better one :o) TOP |
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Regulus April 3, 2003 21:29 UT. Regulus, the Alpha star of Leo, RA 10:08.4 DEC +11:58 ; magnitudes 1.4 and 7.7 Separation 176.9 arc seconds. TOP |
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Mintaka with companion February 3, 2003 19:59 UT. TOP |
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Enif: Epsilon Pegaus October 6, 2002 20:13 UT. The double star Enif: Epsilon Pegasus; RA 21:44 11.11 DEC +09 30 The magnitude information (just move your mouse over the image and maybe wait a few seconds to allow loading) is derived from the USNO-SA2.0 catalog. Separation: 142 arc seconds.  TOP |
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Algieba April 3, 2002 20:11 UT. Star name Algieba, meaning: the mane of the lion. Leo Gamma RA 10:20.0.6 DEC +19 49; magnitudes [TYC 1423-1349-1] 2.24 and [TYC 1423-1349-2] 3.64. Separation 4.4 arc seconds. Distance: 126 +/- 4 light years. TOP |
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Leo 54 April 1, 2002 21:21 UT. Leo 54 RA 10:55.6 DEC +24 45; magnitudes [TYC 1978-2295-1] 4.5 and [TYC 1978-2296-1] 6.3. Separation 6.5 arc seconds. Distance: 289 +/- 19 light years. TOP |
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