| Ilario Melandri | ||||
| Star:
Alpha Hercules
Date & Time: 26 May 2000 – 00.16 UTC Seeing: 9 <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)> Location of site: Italy, Ravenna, San Romualdo, Lat 44 32’N Lon 12 08’E Elevation: 0 m Site classification: Rural Sky darkness: 5 <Limiting magnitude> Temperature: +18C Telescope: 150 mm f/15 achromatic refractor (lens by Romano Zen, Venice). Magnification: 140 x (eyepiece Clave Plossl 16 mm |
Note: the third component of m 11.1 is very difficult to see.
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| Chris Peters | ||||
| Star: Alpha Hercules (ab)
Date & Time: 27 May, 5:30 UT Seeing: About 8 <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)> Location of Site: Rio Rico, Arizona, 12 miles north of the US/Mexico border. Site Classification: Rural Sky darkness: Approx. 6 <limiting magnitude> Telescope: 8 inch, f/6 Newtonian reflector Magnification: 6.7 mm Plossl @ x179 and same with x2 Barlow giving x358
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An easy target, Alpha, but a super one. x179 showed the
stars as deep yellow and bluish-green and separated by some 5". Switching
to x358 showed the colors as deep yellow-orange and sky blue, very striking.
The good seeing kept annoying flare to a minimum, and the clean discs made
the view all the more impressive
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| Patrick J. Anway | ||||
| Star: Alpha Hercules (ab)
Date & Time: May, 28, 2000 03:00 UT Seeing: 6 <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)> Location of Site: Munising Michigan USA Site Classification: Rural Sky darkness: 6 <limiting magnitude> Sky condition: No moon; no clouds Temperature: 39*F 4*C Telescope: Unitron 75mm, f/16 refractor on equatorial mount Magnification: 67X, 100X, 200X (Vixen 18mm, 12mm, 6mm orthoscopics) |
Just detected split at 67X, easily at 100X and 200X. Primary
bright yellow; secondary dull yellow/green.
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| Tom Teague | ||||
| Star:
Alpha Hercules
Date & Time: 2000 May 28 (2245UT) Seeing: 8 <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)>. Location of site: Chester, England (53 11 08N; 02 51 39W) Site classification: Suburban Sky darkness: 5 <Limiting magnitude> Telescope: 63mm Zeiss Telementor refractor Magnification: x56, x112, x210, x336 |
Split at all powers. Gold and pale greenish-blue. Colours best seen
x210 and x336, but image quality at this last power is inferior.
Best view x210. A spectacular pair!
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| Richard Harshaw | ||||
| Star: Alpha Hercules
Location of site: Northern Kansas City, Missouri (USA) 94d 30m west longitude, 39d 15m north latitude 980 ft above Mean Sea Level Date of observations (UT): 29 May, 2000; 0330 hours Site classification: suburban Sky conditions: seeing-- 8 out of 10 (long periods of 10!!) transparency-- 8 out of 10 limiting visual magnitude-- 4.5 Telescope: Celestron C-8 Eyepiece: 10mm Ortho (211x) |
Magnitudes: 3.5 (M5III), 5.4 (G5), 11.1
Sep/PA's: AB = 5(+)/105(-), AD = 81(-)/39(fixed) Year of last measurement: 1991 Distance (light years): Luminosity (in suns): Colors: Deep Yellow-Orange (!!!), Yellow, and White. It was easy at 105x, but looked better at 211. A mask helped the view by cleaning up the images nicely. (B was on the 3rd diffraction ring; putting the mask on the scope made it appear as if by magic.) As an interesting aside, B looked bluish at first glance, but this is probably an illusion due to the deep, intense color of A. (Similar to the reports of Antares's companion being green when it is in fact blue.) I just have to include some of my notes on this star from my database: The orbit is believed to take about 3,600 years (Baize, 1978)! The primary is a semi-regular variable discoverd by William Herschel (1779), and has a 90 day period. It is a huge red giant, 400 times as big as the Sun and 14 times as massive, but only 0.0000001 times as dense. Its surface temperature is only 2,650 K. In fact, most of its energy is radiated in the infra-red. It is also belching out a tenuous shell of matter that is so large it actually engulfs the B star, extending some 200,000 solar radii! This shell is expanding at 10 kps and is fed at the rate of 3 x 10^-8 solar masses per year-- a real gusher in astronomical terms! Its diameter has been measured as 0.025". The B star is actually a very close binary with a 51.6 day period and
a nearly circular orbit. (Circular orbits among binaries imply old
age. The companion is an F2 star, so it must have evolved faster
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| John M. Ryan | ||||
| Star:
Alpha Hercules
Date of Observation: 5/30/00 22UT Location of Observation: Ciudad Rodrigo, Salamanca, Spain 40º 36' N, 6º 32'W, Elev. 800 Meters Seeing: 4 to 5 (1 - 10, 10 best) Transparency: 6 to 7. Limiting Mag. (naked eye): 4 Site classification: Urban Instrument: Meade 8"SCT Magnification: 117X and 167X |
Separation (Clear or Touching): Clear (Split of the brighter two components)
Magnitude Comment:Both components bright with difference in accordance with data. Color Comment: 1st:White & blue 2nd:Yellowish Orange & blue-green 3rd:Yellow & Blue. General Comment: Could not see third dim component. Spent three nights
with Alpha because of the color comments that I had read in the Webb and
Smyth books (Yellow Orange and Blue Green). As noted above the colors were
changing each night slightly. The first nite I noted White and Blue after
consulting Webb and Smyth I returned and studied the Double to see if I
could note the blue green and yellow orange.
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| Tim Leese | ||||
| Star:
Alpha Hercules
Date & Time: 30/31/May/2000 22:00UT-01:00UT Seeing: 7-8 <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)> Location of site: Cheshire. UK 53° 15' N –2º 33' W Site classification: Suburban Sky darkness: 4? <Limiting magnitude> Telescope: 200mm f/6 Newtonian scope mounted over a Vixen GP mount (manual slow motion). Any Quoted PA or SEP are estimates. Magnification: X48, X60, X96, X120
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I was unable to split using X48 but could just separate
at X60. Using X96 (micro guide) I could see what to me was a pale orange
primary with a pale blue/green secondary at PA 105 deg.
The best view was obtained using X120 where the colour contrast seemed deeper. Using averted vision I could see the fainter C companion also. I was unable to separate using X60 this time but using x120 separation was observed. This time the colours seemed pale orange and pale blue but I could not detect the fainter C star.
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| Paolo Morini | ||||
| Star:
Alpha Hercules
Date & Time: 1 June 2000 – 21:05 UTC Seeing: 9 <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)> Location of site: San Romualdo, a little village in the country near Ravenna – Italy. Site classification: Suburban Sky darkness: 5.5 <Limiting magnitude> Temperature: +16C Telescope: TV Pronto dia 70mm f=480 mm Magnification: about 120x (eyqpiece Plossl 10 mm + barlow 2x) |
beautiful double, not seen the third component.
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| Bill Reinehr | ||||
| Star:
Alpha Hercules
Date & Time: June 2, 2000, 04:45 UTC Seeing: 7+ (fairly still) <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)> Location of site: Pflugerville, Texas, USA (30 degrees N.) Site classification: Suburban Sky darkness: 4.1 <Limiting magnitude> Temperature: 75 F. Telescope: Vixen 80mm Fluorite, f/8 on Custom D altaz mount Magnification: 29x, 58x, 106x, 180x, 256x |
A clean split at 58x. Primary a very vivid gold. A hint
of pale blue in the secondary. Most attractive at 106x. Could not
see the 11.1 mag third component at any power.
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| Eddy O'Connor | ||||
| Star: Alpha Hercules
Date & Time: Time: 11 p.m local; UT +10. Sunday, June 4th 2000. Seeing: 6 <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)> Transparency: 10/10 Location of Site: Terara, New South Wales, Australia, Long.150.38 degrees; South 34.52. Site Classification: Suburban Sky darkness: Northern sky to mag. 6; Southern to 6.5 <Limiting magnitude> Instrument: 8" F9 Dobsonian Magnification: 72X (25mm K Eyepiece), 144x (12.5 mm Orth). |
Just split, but well separated at 144X. Fine easy
object. Burnt Gold and Grayish/Green companion. Hartung records, Orange
and White and notes little change in separation, with motion slowly retrograde.
Ambience: This night was even darker than two nights previously and I could spot five stars in the Coal Sack as the night wore on. Ducks quite noisy in a nearby stream where they are starting to nest. (Note to Ornithologists: Why do sensible birds like ducks nest in Winter, during our coldest nights and when the foxes are about?). Observed an impressive Meteor passing through Hercules. A message from the Strong One?
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| Patrick Kelly | ||||
| Star: Alpha Hercules
Date & Time: Saturday 6/3/2000 10PM Seeing: clear, 8 <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)> Location of Site: Baltimore, Maryland USA Site Classification: Urban Sky darkness: 4 <limiting magnitude> Telescope: Takahashi FS102 (102mm)f/8 refractor on AP 400 equatorial mount Magnification: first hint of seperation at 45x (Tak 18mm LE); best views at 82x and 102x (Radian 10mm and 8mm)
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A spectacular view with impresssive color contrast between
the light gold primary and pale blue companion. My 11 year old son commented
that, to him, looking at the companion was like looking at earth through
a telescope.
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| Jose Fernandez | ||||
| Star:
Alpha Hercules
Date & Time: 7-June 07-2000, 10:30 UT Seeing: 8 <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)> Location of site: L'Angliru, Asturias-SPAIN (43.2N,6W. Elevation:1500 m) wwww.astrosurf.com/josefdez Site classification: Rural Sky darkness: 4.5 at zenit. Moon (phase:0.37) 23 degrees over horizon <Limiting magnitude> Telescope: INTES MK65, 150mm f12 Magnification: 73x (Meade 24.5 mm WA), 186x (Meade 9.7 mm), 240x (Celestron 7.5 mm)
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Split a 73x (24.5 mm). At 186x (9.7 mm) the primary is orange and the
other component is white-blue. At 240x (7.5 mm) in some moments I can see
the third star.
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| Pino Bandini | ||||
| Star: Alpha Hercules
Location of site: Ravenna, Italy Date of observations (UT): 7 June 2000 – 22.05 UTC Site classification: Urban Sky conditions: Seeing: (10 best) Temperature: 25C Limiting visual magnitude: -- Telescope: Celestron C8 Magnification: 81x (eyepiece Plossl 25 mm) |
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| Mary Flanagan | ||||
| Star:
Alpha Hercules
Date & Time: 08 Jun 2000 03:49 UT/ 7 Jun 10:49 CDT Seeing: 6; improved later. <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)> Transparency: (1-10) 7 Location of site: Apple Valley MN, USA 93d 14m 25s W; 44d 45m 17s N Site classification: Suburban Sky darkness: ~mag 4.5 at best <Limiting magnitude> Telescope: 8" f/6 Dobsonian Magnification: 80x, 160x (15mm TV plossl, 2x TV barlow) |
The secondary was pretty much overwhelmed by the dazzling primary;
couldn't separate them at 80x, but the secondary popped loose at 160x.
Seeing wasn't so hot; they were dancing around at times, but there was
black between the two. Primary a gorgeous orange-gold, secondary
looked bluish to me.
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| William L. Schart | ||||
| Star:
Alpha Hercules
Date & Time: Seeing: 8 <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)> Location of site: Killeen, TX (Lat 31 N, Elev 600 ft) Site classification: Suburban Sky darkness: 8 <Limiting magnitude> Telescope: Orion 6" Dob. Magnification: 32x, 48x, 72x, 120x |
It took quite some time to find this, as the stars in
Her are just at the naked eye limit tonight. At 32x and 48x, nothing doing,
just barely split at 72x, at 120x a good clean split. Both members appear
a nice, bright yellow. At this power, I could just barely detect the widespaced
but very faint third member.
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