examined 39 Leo

Reviewed 39 Leo.

I imaged the double star on 10 Jan. The photo shows a bump rather close to the primary. It is angled to the north-west. This is different than how SkyTools 3 Pro shows it in its charts. The software shows the B star is to the north-east. And further away.

The Washington Double Star databases has 32 observations of this pair going back to 1851 and as recent as 2015. The current numbers are: 6.7" and 307°. The ST3P chart is roughly 14" and 56°. That's completely wrong. Curiously, the Object Information box shows 7.6 and 299 as of 1972. That's reasonable. Chart's wrong; data is close.

The neat thing is that the bump on the bloated A star in my image is exactly where the B companion should be. So, while not separated, I think I can saw fairly that I have spotted the tight, dim partner.

Maybe I could not split it back in May 2014 as the chart had me looking in the wrong place, wrong direction, and wrong separation. The magnitude delta, 5.8 vs. 11.3 (WDS values), would ordinarily be challenging. Maybe it was that the dim star is hard to see so close to the parent.

I am marking this as observed.