Seeing Double

Double stars are often quite pretty to look at. And we don't need dark-sky sites or moonless nights to enjoy looking for them. Close pairs (or more distant but "unequal" pairs) can afford good tests of our eyes, our optics, and our seeing conditions. Much of our modern understanding of stellar populations and stellar evolution has been gleaned from careful observations of close binaries and small multiple-star systems.
I will talk a little bit about how double stars are catalogued, describe good resources for finding useful double star information (both printed and electronic), and then discuss some of what has been learned from the study of visual double stars and small star systems. A handout will be provided, with charts and data for several dozen nice winter season "challenge objects" for double star observations.

Speaker: Andrew Bell