I do not remember where I read of epsilon Lyrae as a viewing target, but I have it in my notebook between 12 and 14 November as a possible goal along with eta Cassiopiae and gamma Delphinus. (I identified Delphinus on 01 November, above Jupiter.) I found eta Cass, but have not pursued gamma Delph. Capturing all four stars associated with epsilon Lyr took some work and encouragement from peers.
My first problem was finding a graphical guide. I read that the separation between e1 and e2 is 208 arc seconds (3 mins 28 secs). I also knew that the separation at eta Cass was 5 secs in 1890 and is predicted to be 16 secs in 2150. I figured that it is about 10” or 11” now. And I saw that double star on 15 November (easily) and again on 18 Nov 2034 hrs at 77.5x and 165x. So, I expected the separation of e1 e2 Lyr to be 2o times that.
I posted my sketches to The Sky Searchers under Observing Reports. (I also figured out a way to make drawings more-or-less to scale by keeping both eyes open and holding a ruler at arm’s length in the image.)
Username Bigzmey replied that with my ES-102 and a 6 mm ocular with 2x Barlow, I ought to be able to split the two stars e1 and e2 into four. I went back and did more reading and found my mistake.
[A note on the scientific illiteracy of our era: On this blog you can find excoriations of Neil deGrasse Tyson's Spacetime Travesty and errors in the Sky & Telescope desk calendar. In this article, you will have caught the fact that the Greek letters are written out. I write my drafts in Word. Characters created with the MS-Word Symbol font do not always import. It depends on the versions of this and that. Google Blog has Lots of New Cool Fonts, (including Cherry Cream Soda) none of them supporting a technical set. Even the s0-called Cambria Math is sadly deficient.
Georgia - a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z
Cambria Math - a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z
Cambria Math - å ı Ç Î ´ Ï © Ó ˆ Ô ˚ Ò Â ˜ Ø ∏ Œ ® Í † ¨ √ ∑ ≈ Á Ω
A-hat and O-hat are OK for unit vectors, or would be if they were lowercase. Such do not exist.
The right-hand alt opt key give the line shown above.
The left-hand alt opt yields these: å ∫ ç ∂ ´ ƒ © ˙ ˆ ∆ ˚ ¬ µ ˜ ø π œ ® ß † ¨ √ ∑ ≈ ¥ Ω
... because mathematicians and other technical workers so often call on the archaic copyright © and registering ® their trademarks to protect their incomes in Japanese ¥ yen when citing the words of James Madison on the advantages of a fœderal constitution.]
PREVIOUSLY ON NECESSARY FACTS
Beehive Cluster First Sighting
Space is the Place: Come to the High Frontier
Of Watches and Beaches and Atheists
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