imaged HD 202276 (Halifax)

I recently viewed HD 202276 aka β 682 at the CAO as I tried to find some interesting doubles in the small constellation of Equuleus. This is a triple with tight and wide components. Maybe not a good choice for my double star programme.

Aimed the Burke-Gaffney Observatory robotic telescope at Tycho 00535-1921 1. It sure is interesting!

Luminance only, 1 second subexposures, 12 stacked shots. FITS Liberator, Paint.NET. North is up; east is left.

The HD 202276 system is centred on the brightest star in the field. Amazingly, I can see the tight companion B. It is much dimmer and located to the left or east.

[ed: This is rather impressive given the poor image registration, the proximity of the stars at 5.7 arc-seconds, and the difference in the magnitudes, 7.7 and 12.2.]

The partner C, which I briefly visually spotted, is below, to the south.

East of C is the vertically oriented (north-south) close pair of equal faint stars of BAL 2979.

To the right is the close and unequal pairs to stars. About twice the separation of BAL. Not quite north-south. SkyTools 3 Professional does not show these as a formal double. The brighter star, Tycho 00535-1921 1, is the one I used for targeting.

The whole pattern is very interesting.