Pi Bootis 

Philippe Dejocas
Star: Pi Bootis
Date & Time: May 01 2001
Seeing: 6.5 <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)>. 
Location of site: Ottawa/Hull, Canada 
Site classification: suburban, urban
Sky darkness: 4.2 (UMI) <Limiting magnitude> 
Temperature: 15ºC/9ºC  (beg/end) 
Winds :  ~10, 15Km/h S/SW 
Humidity : ~40% 
Sky : Moon at first quarter and in Leo; sky is 
a nice dark blue with just a trace of haze 
Telescope: Aldebaran 6" f5 Newtonian
Magnification: 40x, 85x, 120x
At 40x this first target established this sense of  lone stars dominating their field : I could, with difficulty, discern maybe half-a-doz. ft. strs. surrounding it. 85x brought out a pretty double with a blue /white lucida and an off-white companion ~ 6" EES/ESE. Pushing the power to 120x did not improve the view.

 


 
Stuart
Star: Pi Bootis
Date & Time: 3rd May 2001 2205 UT 
Seeing: 5-6 <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)>. 
Location of site: Near Halifax, West Yorkshire, England 
Site classification: suburban
Sky darkness: 4.2 (UMi) <Limiting magnitude> 
Temperature: -1C 
Telescope: GX 250 10" Newtonian
Eyepiece: 20 mm Plossl , 9.5 mm Ortho (x126) 
Magnification: x60, x126 
Not far from previous star, Pi is easy to find and identify. Cleanly split at x60, the view was much better at x126. The primary was seen as white and the dimmer star as pale yellow. 

Ambience: Arrived home late last evening to a sky clear of cloud for once. Too 
good not to observe a few doubles in Bootes. 

The soft light of the 10 day old moon was sufficient to make local security lights less of  a nuisance than they often are and give form to trees just starting (and rather late) to break into leaf. A lovely almost still night,  just a very light northerly breeze and a slight frost, enough to keep all but star crazy loons inside. Couldn't resist a look at Luna at the end of the session. Gassendi was very impreassive. 


 
Rafael Barberá
Star: Pi Bootis
Date & Time: 5/5/2001, 22:01
Seeing: 6 <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)>. 
Location of site: Manises, Valencia, Spain
Site classification: Urban
Sky darkness: 3.5 (almost full moon) <Limiting magnitude> 
Telescope: TV85 85mm F/7 F.L.: 600mm 
Eyepiece: Eudascopic 5mm 
Magnification: 48x, 120x 
I don't take notes of this star (mea culpa). I remember that I need 48x to 
split them. Also, I was lost for a couple of minutes trying to split Zeta 
Bootes instead of Pi... I need a second round with this star. 

 
Bob Hogeveen
Star: Pi Bootis
Date & Time: May 07 2001
Seeing: 6 <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)>. 
Location of site: Annen, The Netherlands
(53ºN, 6ºE) 
Site classification: Village backyard
Sky darkness: 3.5 (UMI) <Limiting magnitude> 
Sky : Full Moon in Libra and a slight haze 
Telescope: Meade LX10 (8" f/10 SCT) 
Magnification: 50x, 100x
Harschaw's Scale: 1 <1 to 5> 
 

Star: Pi Bootis
Date & Time: May 08 2001 
Seeing: 6 <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)>. 
Location of site: Annen, The Netherlands
(53ºN, 6ºE) 
Site classification: Village backyard
Sky darkness: 3.5 (UMI) <Limiting magnitude> 
Sky : Twilight and clouds coming in 
Telescope: Swarovski AT80 (80mm spottingscope), Meade LX10 (8" f/10 SCT)
Magnification: 60x
Harschaw's Scale: 2 (AT80) <1 to 5> 

A very beautiful double. Best, and striking view with 100x. With 50x also a nice and easy split. A is white and B is yellow 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A quick check with the spottingscope of this double, which was observed  yesterday with LX10. Needed 60x (which is maximum for this scope) for a split. A beautiful  and attractive double, but comes out better with the bigger scope. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 


 
Cor Berrevoets
Star: Pi Bootis
Date & Time: 10-may-2001 20:00 - 21:30 UT
Seeing: ? <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)>. 
Location of site: Ritthem, The Netherlands
51° 27' N, 003° 38' E
Site classification: Suburban
Sky darkness: 4.5 <Limiting magnitude> 
Telescope: Intes Micro 6" F10 Maksutov 
(35% obstruction)
Eyepieces: 7.5, 10, 15, 20 and
26 mm Plössls
Magnification: 75x, 150x
At 20mm (75x) I could split this one easily, both of the stars look pale 
blue at 10mm (150x). 

 
John M. Ryan
Star: Pi Bootis
Date & Time: 11 May 2001 ( 23:00 UT ).
Seeing: 7 <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)>. 
Location of site: Barreras, Salamanca, Spain.
Site classification: Rural,Suburban.
Sky darkness: 4 <Limiting magnitude> 
Sky: Moon rising, fairly dry and calm. 
Telescope: Meade 8" SCT
Eyepieces: 20mm plossl, 7mm ortho 
Magnification: 100X and  286X
Split with the 20mm at 100X, better at 286X with the 7mm. Both components white with a tint of blue. Not much contrast in magnitudes. With the 7mm the airy discs and surronding rings were very prominent atesting to the good seeing and the collimation of the scope. I rated this as 2.5. 

 
Tim Leese
Star: Pi Bootis
Date & Time: 12 May 2001 ( 21:50 UT )
Seeing: 5-6 <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)>. 
Location of site: Cheshire. UK
53° 15' N -2º 33' W
Site classification: Suburban
Sky darkness: ? <Limiting magnitude> 
Conditions: Nice clear night, looking good. 
Telescope: 200mm f/6  Newtonian
mounted over a Vixen GP mount (manual slow motion).
Eyepieces: 9mm, 6mm UO orthoscopic 
Magnification: X133,X200
Using X200 I found a lovely pair white / off white stars. 
The PA of the secondary was estimated to be about 110deg. 
I thought that the best view was obtained using X133 as the two stars appeared 
to hold steady.  A very nice classic double star view. 

 
William Schart
Star: Pi Bootis
Date & Time: May 12, 2001,  9:22-11:08 pm CDT
Seeing: 8 <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)>. 
Location of site: Killeen, TX, USA
31ºN, 97ºW
Site classification: Suburban
Sky darkness: 4 <Limiting magnitude> 
Conditions: Nice clear night, looking good. 
Telescope: Celestron 8" SCT
Eyepieces: 25 mm, 17 mm, 12.5 mm (MG)
Magnification: 80X, 117X, 160X
Bright, close, and little magnitude difference, but still I split it at low power. SEP 6.3”,  PA 105.3 (ave of 5 measures). 
 
 
 
 

 


 
Jim Jones
Star: Pi Bootis
Date & Time: 05/20/01, 0730 UTC
Seeing: 5 <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)>. 
Location of site: Independence, OR, USA
Site classification: Rural 
Sky darkness: 4.6 in Bootes <Limiting magnitude> 
Sky: Very clear, Moon 4 days past last 
quarter in Piscium 
Telescope: 8 inch LX50 SCT 
Eye Piece(s): 26mm Meade 4000
Magnification: 76x
Est PA without inst...120d
Primary....White, Companion...Yellow-white A bright double in the middle of a dim, sparse field.  A mag 9 or 10 star to the east and another to the south and that's it.  Field doesn't look any better through the ST80.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 


 
Chuck Shinn
Star: Pi Bootis
Date and Time: 05/22/01 
UT:  0300-0445 
Seeing: 6 <1 worst - 10 best> 
Location of Site: Northern Texas (USA) 
Site Classification: Suburban
Sky conditions:  Clear with no moon 
Sky Darkness: 4.5 <Limiting Magnitude>
Transparency: 7 out of 10 
Telescope: Questar 3.5 (90mm) Maksutov 
Magnification: 105X
Eye Piece(s): 24mm Brandon w/1.6X barlow
Clean split.
Colors noted:  Blue/Wht

 
Patrick J. Anway
Star: Pi Bootis
Date & Time: May 21, 2001  04:00 UT
Seeing: 8 <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)>. 
Location of site: Munising, Michigan, USA
Site classification: Rural
Sky conditions: No moon. few high clouds
Temperature: 40°F, 5°C 
Sky darkness: 5.9 <Limiting magnitude> 
Telescope: Zeiss AS 100mm f/10 refractor
on equatorial mount
Eyepieces: 40mm plossl, 25mm, 9mm & 6mm orthoscopics
Magnification: 25X, 40X, 111X, 166X
At 40X showed elongation and at 111X clearly split. Flammarion called it a "beautiful couple" and I would agree - a pretty pair of two nearly equal white stars. Sir John Herschel reported them as: "Nearly equal; large is white; the smaller perhaps inclines to blue". 
 
 

 


 
Rafael Benavides 
Star: Pi Bootis
Date & Time: 25 - May - 2001 (21 h 00 m UT) 
Seeing: 7 <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)>. 
Location of site: Posadas (Córdoba), Spain
37º 48' N - 5º 08' 30" W - 100 mts over sea level 
Site classification: Suburban 
Temperature: 25ºC 
Sky darkness: 5.6 <Limiting magnitude> 
Telescope: Helios 120 mm f/8.3 achromatic refractor 
Eyepieces: Plossl 20 mm, Plossl 10 mm,
Microguide 12.5 mm, 2x Barlow,
3x Barlow,  diagonal prism 
Magnification: 50x, 100x, 263x, 500x
Using a magnification of 50x I could see a nice close pair of white stars. The best view came from using 100x giving a bright pair. Using MicroGuide at 263x (With Barlow 2x) and at 500x (with Barlow 3x) from an average of 8 measures the PA between the two stars was estimated to be 108º and a separation of 5"56 sec. 

Ambience: Nights are warmer and shorter. Nowadays it´s difficult to spend lots of 
time under the stars. It´s so warm here that temperature reached 37ºC yesterday. It seems summer has come over. Last night,the atmosphere has got turbulences because the temperature was high. Mars was trembling, I couldn´t see any detail on it. Naturally, it was low over the horizon (about 15º). 
 
 
 

 


 
Ilario Melandri
Star: Pi Bootis
Date & Time: 26 May 2001,
19.32 – 21:08 UTC
Seeing: 8 <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)>. 
Location of site: S.Romualdo, Ravenna, Italy. Elevation: 0 m
Site classification: rural
Temperature: +19ºC -> +16ºC
Sky darkness: 4 <Limiting magnitude> 
Telescope: 150mm f/15 achromatic refractor
(lens by Romano Zen, Venice)
Eyepieces: Clave Plossl 16 mm
Magnification: 140x
 
 

    

 
Thad Robosson
Star: Pi Bootis
Date and Time: 5-29-01, 3:30UT 
Seeing: 7 <1 worst - 10 best> 
Location of Site: Phx, Az, USA 
Site Classification: Suburban
Sky conditions: Clear and nice. Nearly 1rst quarter Moon 
Sky Darkness: 4 <Limiting Magnitude>
Telescope: Meade 90mm ETX 
Magnification: 39x, 83x
Eye Piece(s): 2x barlow, 32mm Meade SuperWide, 10 & 15mm Vixen Lanthanums
15mm and 32mm (83x & 39x) both this one showed as double. The difference was that the lower power gave the primary a bluish tinge.  15mm showed a weak blue with a weak orange-yellow comp. at 90*  Rated a 2 for the tightness. 

 
Jose Fernandez 
Star: Pi Bootis
Date & Time: June 22 2001 
Seeing: 1.4" approximately 
Location of site: L'Angliru. Asturias, Spain.
43º13'16"N - 05º56'34"W
Elevation: 1540 meters
Site classification: Rural
Sky darkness: 5.5 limiting magnitude 
Telescope: University Optics 80 mm f6.25.
Barlow 2x with effective focal lenght (efl) of 1571mm 
Eyepieces: Meade SWA 24.5 mm, Celestron MicroGuide.
Constant scale=13.13+-0.20 "/div 
Magnification: 20x, 131x 
Separation=6.6"+-3.3"
PA = 110º+-0.5
No colors detected
With small separations it is evident that the necessity to have a big 
efl. A variation of 0.25 divisions in the linear scale is translated 
in 3.3"!!!!!!