Friday, February 19 , 2010
links to double and multiple star sites
Belmont Society http://www.belmontnc.4dw.net
They have a cool double-star list in colour! Some of them seem off a little. There
are many drawings of the doubles as well. Other helpful information for beginner
and intermediate amateur astronomers (e.g. the Greek alphabet with symbols) can
be found on their site. The telescope eyepiece articles are tremendously illuminating.
Note: This useful web site went off-line sometime in November 2006. It is
not clear if it will be resurrected.
Sky & Telescope's winter double stars
http://skytonight.com/observing/objects/doublestars/3304626.html
A collection of 42 pretty double and multiple stars. Assembled by Alan Adler.
His criteria is based primarily on their beauty: many are contrasting colours;
or else they are well-matched in brightness. Note: I pointed out an error which
has since been corrected. As well, the Greek symbols were corrected in the HTML
coding.
Sky & Telescope's summer double stars
http://skytonight.com/observing/objects/doublestars/3304631.html
Another collection of 54 pretty double and multiple stars again assembled by Alan
Adler. Note: κ (kappa) Her is incorrectly shown as Marfik; that moniker
belongs to λ (lambda) Oph. Also, the Greek HTML coding is not corrected.
Paul Baize's Colour Article http://homepage.mac.com/andjames/Page029c.htm
A fascinating article by the late Baize on double star colour contrast. Essentially,
he debunks the spectacular and pronounced colour descriptions applied to close
groupings of stars, reminding us of their chemical properties and that colouring,
at the best of times, is very subjective. Updated for new URL.
Wikipedia's Stellar Classifications
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stellar_classification
A helpful article on the classification of stars. I particularly like the visuals
representing the colours of stars.
Joy of Double Stars
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/community/skyblog/stargazing/82776647.html
A Sky and Telescope article by Tony Flanders. Unlike deep-sky objects, double
stars are usually easy to find and observe. He relays how much he enjoys observing
doubles, partly because it is quick and easy to do inside city limits.
Double-Star Resources
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/community/skyblog/stargazing/83756342.html
A companion or follow-up to his Sky and Telescope "Joy" article. By
Tony Flanders. Catalogues, books, web site links.
Journal of Double Star Observations http://jdso.org/
A site encouraging the viewing of double stars for fun, for science, for people
now and future generations.
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