Struve 855 

Craig M. Carver
Star: Struve 855 
Date & Time:  11/28/98  0010 LT 
Seeing:  5 <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)> 
Location of site:  Randalman, NC  (Lat 36.07, Long 79.79, Elev. 500 ft) 
Site classification: Rural 
Sky darkness:  5.1-5.3  <Limiting magnitude> 
Telescope: 6" Maksutov 
Magnification: 95x 		 2 1/2 degrees northeast of 59 Ori, this is a nice wide pair.  The primary is a pale yellow star with a dimmer (approx mag 7) bluish star.  At about PA 100 degrees there is an optical "C" star about mag 8.3 and 2' away. 

 
Chuck Layton
Star: Struve 855 
Date of Observation:  Jan. 11, 1999 
Time of Observation:  0720 UT 
Seeing (1 - 10, 10 best):  5 
Site classification: Suburban 
Limiting Mag. (naked eye):  4.8 
Instrument Used:  20cm f/6 Eq. Newtonian 
Magnifications Used:  76X 		 Observed Colorations of Components:  Primary - yellow, comes - blueish white. 
Other comments:  Wide, pretty double with a rich yellow primary.  Nice star hop to find this one. 

 
Paolo Morini
Star: Struve 855 
Date & Time: 25/01/1999, 22:40 UTC 
Seeing:  7 <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)> 
Location of site: At my home in Ravenna – Italy. 
Site classification: Urban 
Sky darkness: 3.5-4  <Limiting magnitude> (haze and 1st quarter moon) 
Telescope: TeleVue Pronto 70mm f480mm 
Magnification: 77x (TV 20 eyepiece with Barlow lens and star diagonal) 		 Very fine system. It seems to be a color contrast but is very difficult to tell the shade or tone because the transparency is too bad.

 
Dave Mitsky
Star: Struve 855 
Date & Time: 2/4/99 03:04 UT 
Seeing: 6 <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)>
Transparency:  ~ 6 
Location of site: ASH Naylor Observatory (http://www.msd.org/obs.htm) 
near Lewisberry, PA 
Site classification: Rural 
Sky darkness: ~ 5.0 <Limiting magnitude> 
Telescope: 17" f/15 classical Cassegrain 
Magnification: 118x, 202x 		 Easily split at 118x, this attractive pair of 6th and 7th magnitude stars had an eastern orientation.  The secondary had a blue tint.

 
Ilario Melandri
Star: Struve 855 
Date & Time:  
Seeing: 3 <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: 5.5  <Limiting magnitude>
Temperature: +2C 
Telescope: 150 mm f/15 achromatic refractor 
Magnification: 140 x (eyepiece Plossl Clavé 16 mm)


 

 
Randall Heckman
Star: Struve 855 
Date & Time: 12/31/99 AT 2:55 UT 
Seeing: 4 
Location of Site: Heckman Observatory 
40 37' 10" N and 99 03' 50" W 
Site Classification:  Rural 
Sky Darkness (Limiting Magnitude):  5 
Telescope:  8" Orion Dob 
Magnification: 46x 
 		 Magnification: 46 
Separation (Clear or Toughing): Clear 
Magnitude Comment: Secondary about one magnitude dimmer 
Color Comment: Yellow secondary 
General Comment: Somewhat difficult to find.  Nearby asterisms plotted in Uranometria were a great help in locating this double. 
 
 
 
 

 

 
Richard Harshaw
Star: Struve 855 
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): 0325 on 12/31/99 
Site classification: suburban 
Sky conditions: 
seeing-- 8 out of 10 
transparency-- 8 out of 10 
limiting visual magnitude-- 5 
Temperature: 42 F 
Telescope: Celestron C-8 
Eyepiece: Micro-Guide (160x) 		 I made five sets of measurements with the Micro-Guide illuminated reticule eyepiece for AB and AC and got averages of 29" at PA 115 and 118" at PA 108. (If you want the measurements themselves, reply to this posting.) 

I noted colors of White for all three. 
This is a really nice system in the eyepiece! 
The primary spins at 250 kps! 

Hipparchos/Tycho data show different distances for these stars; they may be an optical systsem. 

Measurements from 1929: 
5.7m (A3Vn) primary 
6.9m (AOV) companion, 29" at PA 113 (both appear to be fixed) 
9.6m companion, 118" at PA 106 (both appear to be fixed) 
 

 
Philippe de Jocas 
Star: Struve 855 
Date & Time: January 22, 1h00-7h300 UT 
Seeing: 3-4 <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)>.
Location of site: Ottawa/Hull, Canada
Site classification: Suburban 
Sky darkness: 4.5 <Limiting magnitude>
Temperature: -25C 
Telescope: 6" f5 newtonian
Magnification: 40x		 This is the first part of my log entry "WOW!" (that one got a "!!!"). I've got another question though: is that 10½ about 80" in the same PA part of it? 
 

 
Jim Brownfield
Star: Struve 855   
Date & Time: 26/01/2000, 6:30 p.m.- 11:30 p.m. EST 
Seeing: 3 – 5 (improving) <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)>.
Location of site: Huntsburg, Ohio, USA
Site classification: Suburban 
Sky darkness: 6 mag., could see ST 855, going to 5th mag. star Rho  <Limiting magnitude>
Other observing conditions:  83% humidity, 16 degrees F. with 12" snow on ground going to 84% humidity, 4 degrees F.
Telescope: 13.1"/F4.5 Dobsonian, with 5" aperture mask for the brighter pairs
Magnification: 47x		 split at 47x, white & light blue 

 
John M. Ryan
Star: Struve 855 
Date of Observation: 30/01/00 22:55UT 
Location of Observation: Ciudad Rodrigo, Salamanca, Spain 
40º 36' N, 6º 32'W, Elev. 800 Meters 
Seeing: 7 to 8. Best so far this new year based on the Luis Arguelles method (0 - 10, 10 best)  
Site classification: Urban
Limiting Mag. (naked eye): 5
Instrument: Meade 8"SCT  
Magnification: 80x, 167x		 Separation (Clear or Touching):Clear Split 
Magnitude Comment:Magnitues observed about 6 and 7 in accordance with the data. 
Color Comment:Both components tend to be pale blue. 
General Comment:Clean easy split of two fairly bright and almost equal components. 

 
William L. Schart
Star: Struve 855 
Date & Time: 2/2/2000, 10:13 pm CST
Seeing: 7 <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)> 
Location of site: Killeen, TX (Lat 31 N, Elev 600 ft) 
Site classification: Suburban 
Sky darkness: 4 <Limiting magnitude> 
Telescope: Orion 6" Dob. 
Magnification: 48x, 72x, 98x 
 		 A short hop away from 59. A pair of mag 6 and 7 stars. There is a fainter, about mag 8 star about 2-3 times farther away forming what appears to be a triple system. This third star may be SAO 113509.(?) Separation is 30”, PA 113d. 

 
Jay Zimmerman
Star: Struve 855 
Date & Time: 02/09/2000, 
Seeing: 6 <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)> 
Location of Site:  Carbondale, IL, USA 
Site Classification: Suburban/near rural 
Temperature: 28°F (-2.22°C) 
Sky darkness: 5.1  <Limiting magnitude> 
Telescope: 97mm, f7 apo 
Magnification: 13.3x 
 		 A and B comprise a nice, wide double split at 13.3x. Colors: A = yellowish white; B = pale blue. There is another star in the field, east of the secondary, of about mag. 9, PA 100°, separation about 100 arcseconds (all estimated). 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 
Bill Becker
Star: Struve 855 
Location of site: Casper, Wyoming Elev. 5200' 
Date of observations: Feb 16 2000, 3:55 UT 
Site classification: Suburban 
Sky conditions: 
Seeing: 7 
Magnitude limit (naked eye): 4.0, Moonlight 
Telescope: Quantum 4 Maksutov 
Magnification: 85x 		 Another easy split, not too hard to find after leaving 59 Ori. Primary seen as white, secondary seen as bluish white; continuing at the same PA as the secondary a 3rd star of maybe 8-8.5 mag. made a nice 3 star string system! 
 
 

 

 
Tollefsen Magne 
Star: Struve 855 
Date & Time: February 25, 2000 at 21.55 UT 
Seeing: 6 <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)>
Location of site: Skien, South-East of Norway 
Site classification: Suburban 
Sky darkness: 4.6 <Limiting magnitude> 
Telescope: Vixen 120mm 4 elements refractor 
Magnification: 353X (Celestron Microguide 
eyepiece, and a TeleVue 5X powermate) 		 Separation 29,6 arcsec. Position Angle 114 degrees. 
 
 

 

 
John Clemmer
Star: Struve 855 
Date & Time: March 6/2000 1930 EST  
Seeing: 7, quite steady <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)>
Location of site: Priceville, Ontario, Canada
W80 41'41"  N44 10' 40"
Site classification: Rural 
Sky darkness: 6+/10ths 5th mag. if I'm lucky tonight <Limiting magnitude>
Telescope: Televue Pronto
Magnification: 95x 

 

 5x Barlow + 26mm, 95x 

 
Jordi Viver
Star: Struve 855 
Date & Time: 16/01/2000, 20:45 UT 
Seeing: 7 <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)> 
Location of Site: Vic (Spain) 41º55’N, 2º19’E 
Elev. 570m 
Site Classification: Suburban 
Sky darkness: 5.09 <Limiting magnitude> 
Temperature: -1ºC 
Telescope: 200mm self-made Newton, Dobsonian 
Magnification: 48x 		 Color comment: The primary is white, the secondary is a yellow star. 
Separation: Clear. 

Catalog data: Guide7.0: AMv 5.69, BMv 6.86, D29.1’’, PA114º 
WDS: A 5.73, B 6.92, D 29.2’’, PA 114º 

General coments: The Moon has 10 days. 
Localization from Betelgeuse 
There are another vM 9.6 star at 2’ 
 
 
 
 

 

 
G.E.O.D.A Group
Star: Struve 855 
Date & Time: 10-III-2000, 19:00-21:00 UT
Seeing: 7.5 <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)> 
Location of Site: Manises, Valencia, Spain. GPS coordinates: 39º 29' 36" N, 00º 27' 56" W.
Site Classification: Urban-Suburban
Sky darkness: 3 <Limiting magnitude> 
Telescope: Meade 10" LX-200 SCT
Magnification: 200x		 Published measures are the mean of two observations made from two different observers.

d = 32.8; PA = 112