Observations of STF644

These are the observations available for STF644. If you have any of your own that you'd like to submit we'd love to put them on the website.

• Another look at STF 644 and a new Atlas

  I was convinced the sky would not be good last night so I just set up the grab&go 4" achro. 7 to 9.45 pm very cold with NELM 4.6.

  As I was in manual mode I decided open clusters and doubles in Auriga using my new Interstellarum deep sky atlas. It shows doubles with a tail indicating PA and it's length and thickness an indication of separation and mag difference. This again proved very handy.

  …Then by chance STF 644 (double star of the month), and to my surprise I was able to split this pair at 143x 7mm Nagler plus 2x barlow. Waiting for a brief moment of steady seeing two tiny points with a hair of a gap. Both looked off white.

  As I was just travelling across the map somewhat randomly I was observing with no knowledge of separation just the notation shown on the maps. The PA indication on the map compared well with this tight pair in the eyepiece. Well chuffed.

  Paul Webb - (19 January 2015) - 500mm fl Skywatcher Startravel 102

• Observations of STF 644 and environs

  I diverted to the double of the month, STF 644, which I first observed a week or so back, not knowing it would appear on the Webb Society page.

  So it was great to go back to it and spend time on it. I gave it my best shot at colour detection and concluded white primary and red secondary - at x220.

  But ever up for spotting more doubles in the same fov (lower magnification) there was BLL 13 (nice pair 8.8/9.5, sep 135") and just a little skip away lies SEI 105 (failed to see its mag 11 companion - bit silly trying in bright moonlight).

  Another skip from STF 644 in the opposite direction and you land in cluster NGC 1778 with a triple (HJ3265) - using AV, x143 I got the two mag 10 stars but not the third mag 11 star.

  Mike Wood - Takahashi Mewlon 180 (6/7 January 2015)

  Just checked my records and I too had a go at STF 644 on 8 December 2014 with 7" mak. I was unable to split the pair but did note that I saw a figure 8. I didn't note magnification used, but I suspect it was 7 mm Nagler 254x.

  Paul Webb - (8 December 2014)