imaged 16 Aur and HD 34413 (Halifax)

The BGO robot moved to an interesting target for me, aiming at SAO 57856, in Auriga. A double of doubles. Multi-star system HD 34413 (aka ES 59) is to the north-east while bright double 16 Aurigae (aka STT 103) is south-west. Poor image quality sadly is turning most of the stars big ovals.

Luminance only, 4 seconds subexposures, 10 stacked shots. FITS Liberator, Paint.NET. North is up; east is left.

Remarkably, despite the poor data, the HD 34413 A, B, C, and E stars are resolved. The primary is slightly brighter than B. B is almost due north. C is very faint and to the north-west of B, slight less than the AB separation. E is visible to the south-south-east of A. It almost looks like a double! Hmm.

I cannot split 16 Aur... The significant Δm, the tight sep., and the bad seeing are conspiring. This pair is noted in the RASC Observer's Handbook.

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Where's HD 34413 D? SkyTools does not show it. The WDS reports the following: ES 2611 DE, as of 2001, is at PA 358 and sep. 4.1. Well that puts is very near to E, to the north! Ah ha! That's the mystery double!