![]() You should be able to see 17 Canum Venaticorum, a pretty pairing of 6th-magnitude white suns separated by 276″.Īim 5° northwest of Cor Caroli for the Hunting Dogs’ second-brightest star, Chara (Beta Canum Venaticorum). Once you find Cor Caroli, itself a binary star suitable for 20x and higher binoculars, look to its northeast. The dogs’ brightest star, 3rd-magnitude Cor Caroli (Alpha Canum Venaticorum), lies about halfway between Phecda (Gamma Ursae Majoris) in the Big Dipper’s bowl and Arcturus (Alpha Boötis). Nestled below the bowl and handle of the Big Dipper is the faint constellation Canes Venatici the Hunting Dogs. Both appear pure white and are easy to split. Here, we find a 5th-magnitude primary sun accompanied by a 7th-magnitude companion 145″ to its west-southwest. The second duo in the Coma Cluster is 17 Comae. If your 10x binoculars are steadily supported, splitting the pair is possible higher-power lenses divide them easily, offering a hint of 12’s yellowish tint. First, there’s 5th-magnitude 12 Comae, which is joined by a 9th-magnitude field star 60″ to the southeast. Swing your binoculars to the two beautiful binaries within. Although potentially challenging, it can be accomplished with 10x binoculars.īut by shifting Tau toward the northwest corner of your view, you’ll find three easier doubles arranged in an X-shaped asterism known as the Double Cross.Įast of Leo, the faint constellation Coma Berenices is home to the Coma Star Cluster (Melotte 111). It’s paired with an 8th-magnitude star 14″ southeast. Olcott also mentioned a “second pair in the field.” He was referring to 83 Leonis, just 20′ northwest of Tau. Olcott described the appearance as “lemon and light blue.” If you defocus your binoculars, you may get a hint of those colors. In his 1909 book In Starland With a Three-Inch Telescope, William T. Tau forms a wide binary star with a magnitude 7.5 companion 1.5′ to its south. The brightest star in the arc is 5th-magnitude Tau (τ) Leonis. From Sigma, look for a four-star arc just 6° (about a field) southeast. ![]() From the triangle marking Leo’s hindquarters and tail, follow an imaginary line southward from Chertan (Theta Leonis) to 4th-magnitude Iota Leonis and then to Sigma (σ) Leonis. Now head to the constellation Leo the Lion. Iota can also be split in two with an image-stabilized 10x binocular and is lovely through 16x70s. That’s a little too close to resolve with handheld 10×50 binoculars, but doable if they are supported on a mount. Often described as the Spring Albireo for its colorful yellow and blue components, Iota’s two stars shine at magnitudes 4.0 and 6.6. We begin with a challenging binocular target, Iota (ι) Cancri. ![]() This month, let’s enjoy a few of my favorite springtime binocular binaries. That’s why many residential observers have turned away from nebulae and galaxies to pursue other targets, such as double stars. (Credit: Jeffrey Fisher/Wikimedia Commons)įor many of us, light pollution has robbed our skies of once readily visible objects. Iota (ι) Cancri, known for its blue and yellow colors, is one of the many binary stars visible this spring.
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