Otto Struve 159 A-D

 
William Schart
Star: Otto Struve 159 A-D
Date & Time: 
Seeing: 8 <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)>. 
Transparency:  <1-10 Scale (10 best)>
Location of site: Texas, USA
Site classification: Suburban
Conditions: full moon 
Sky darkness: 2.5-3 <Limiting magnitude> 
Telescope: C8
Eyepieces: 25mm, 17mm, and 10 mm 
Magnification: 		 A very wide double, with a lot of magnitude contrast. The 
companion, though faint, was still readily apparent.

 
Gordon Nason
Star: Otto Struve 159 A-D
Date & Time: 7th Mar 2004,
21.30 to 23.30 UT
Seeing: 7 <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)>
Transparency: 
Location of site: Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland
 53 19 48 N / 6 15 0 W
Site classification: Suburban
Conditions: 4º C, high-pressure system
overhead, hazy with intermittent high
cloud, bright Moon (Phase .988)
Sky darkness: 3.8 <Limiting magnitude> 
Telescope: Celestron C5 - 9 x 50 finder
 Manfrotto Triman
Eyepieces: 31mm T5 Nagler -
13mm T6 Nagler - 8mm Radian -
Ultima 2x Barlow
Magnification: 96x -156x -192x - 312x
 		 This is a very wide easy double at 40x. Yellowish-white primary.

 
 
 
Richard Harshaw
Star: Otto Struve 159 A-D
Date & Time: LT: 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm, March 8, 2004
UT: 0100 to 0230, March 9, 2004
Seeing: 5 to 5  <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)>. 
Transparency: 7 <1-10 Scale (10 best)>
Location of site: Northern Kansas City, 
Missouri (USA), 
94º 30m W, 39º 15m N
980 ft above Mean Sea Level
Site classification: suburban
Conditions: 
Sky darkness:   <Limiting magnitude> 
Telescope: Celestron C-11
Eyepieces: 
Magnification: 98x
Rating Scale: 5E <1 to 5 (1 being outstanding
view, to 5, a dismal view) and letter E, M or D (easy, moderate or difficult)>		 Y and ?.  (Note:  ? for color means I could not get a reliable estimate of the color.)  The WDS reports a C star (8.2" @ 57 from B), but I did not pick it up.  The WDS does not list a magnitude, so it must be rather faint.  

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
    
 
 


 Steve Bodin
Star: Otto Struve 159 A-D
 Date & Time: 28 Mar and 5 Apr 2004
Seeing: 3-5 <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)>. 
Transparency: Poor
Location of site: Silverdale WA, USA
47N 123W
Site classification: suburb-rural
Conditions: temp 40F, dry
Sky darkness: ~ 4 <Limiting magnitude> 
Telescope: Celestron C8
Eyepieces: not used
Additional: DX-8263SL color video camera at prime focus and 3x
Magnification: app. 333x and 1000x		 Well, when I see an A-D listed, this means a challenge to find B and C too. Firstly, I had trouble identifying this star since the D component actually turned out to be more than double the listed distance. But, checking the WDS provided a measure from 1924 of both C and D of 29"@346 and 197"@167. Apparently, our list chopped of the 1 from the 197sec and arrived at 97 sec for D. [CORRECTED NOW]. But, most interestingly is the AB pair which is a true binary just widening from a very close separation. WDS elements solve to 0.57"@227 deg this year. But a one mag difference makes this a real nutcracker. Finally managed to split on the 5th of April as the poor seeing improved to a 5/10 or so. Measurements: AB, somewhat poor, 0.562 sec at 213 deg PA, AC 38.0 sec at 349.3 deg PA, AD 189.8 sec at 167.7 deg PA. So, the AB pair has moved to the south in the years since 1924, increasing the distance from C and closing on D.
 
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