| Tim Leese | ||||
| Star:
Zeta Ursa Majoris
Date & Time: 19-November-2000 (20:45 UT) Seeing: 5 <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> Conditions: slight to moderate breeze, cold, cloud hopping. Binoculars: 12X50 Olympus 5.3deg FOV (hand held)
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Mizar and Alcor is probably one the most celebrated double
star systems in the sky and was certainly the
first double star system I learned to recognise through binoculars. Tonight they are located quite low down in the sky, being just above neighbours roof tops. Mizar scintillated in the darkness with its wide companion appearing to be a white colour.
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| Stuart Anderson | ||||
| Star:
Zeta Ursa Majoris
Date & Time: 06 Jan 2001 22:42 UT Seeing: 2-3 <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)> Weather: Hazy, almost full moon Location of site: Hamburg, Germany Lat/Long: 53 34 N, 9 59 E Site classification: Suburban sky Sky darkness: -- <Limiting magnitude> Binoculars: Vixen Ultima 9x63 Magnification: 9x Field of view: 5° 24' Observing aids: Camera Tripod
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Decided to take a look at this famous double, given the poor seeing
conditions. Zeta was easy to locate and split from its listed companion,
80 Uma. Very large separation and bright magnitude of each member (2.3
and 4.0) made it very easy, even in a hazy moonlit sky.
No colour could be distinguished in 80 Uma, but zeta seemed to show a very slight yellowish colour. Zeta itself was not resolvable into components, as expected for this instrument. The star SAO 28748 makes a small triangle with Zeta and 80 Uma. This is listed in SkyMap as having magnitude 7.6, and was *just* visible in with averted vision - but only just. Est. PA is 90 degrees (they seem to lie in W-E direction). Clouds are here again, must stop.
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