Thursday, April 05, 2018

aimed at 33 Ori (Halifax)

I was a little surprised when the Burke-Gaffney Observatory informed me it had shot an image as I did not think the conditions were good. Regardless, BGO imaged 33 Orionis, a multi-star system, aka Struve 729. I was trying to tag the C companion.

multi-star system 33 Ori in luminance

Luminance only, 1 second subexposures, 20 stacked shots. FITS Liberator, Paint.NET. North is up; east is left. Centred on GSC 00118-2404.

Wow. The C star is barely visible to the north-east of the AB pair, forming a zig-zag with some magnitude 14.8 and 15.0 stars. The other stars are north of C. C is slightly brighter than these.

SkyTools 3 Pro reports C is mag 14.7 while hovering in the Interactive Atlas. The Object Information box says 13.4. The Washington Double Star database says 13.9. I believe 14.7 is the appropriate value.

Not a great image... A tracking problem? Or wind? Or exacerbated collimation issues? The target is extremely low. ST3P says it was 19° above the horizon at the time.

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