confirmed 16 Vul split

Checked the split limit for the Celestron 8-inch. I had a note on file that said I had only made it to 1.4 arc-seconds. That didn't seem right.

Why I had recently viewed 16 Vul on 30 Aug '19 at 0.8" (SkyTools dated 2003). But that could have been wonky data from the planning app.

Surfed into the Washington Double Star catalogue. Looked up the pair to see if the separation value was right... 20020+2456STT 395 2018  129   0.7  5.83  6.19 F2III. Wow. That's even less than the 2003 figure in ST3P!

Then I jumped into Stelle Doppie and looked up STT 395. Very interesting stuff.

It shows an orbital diagram. Ah ha: a binary. The period is 1201 years. This is graded 4, out of 9, toward the "definitive" end.

It echoes the 2018 data in the WDS for angle and separation. The Historic Data table at the bottom shows it hovering around 0.7 and 0.8 over the last 10 years.

But at the top it says P.A. Now (θ) 127.3° and Sep. Now (ρ) 0.85". Is that some computed value? No matter. It's clearly below 0.9. So it's good to get a sub-one number with the old telescope from the backyard!