56 Per - a colorful after-work double winter double - Mar

56 Per, currently favorably positioned (J042438.40+335736.0) for 41N
op's, is visible in small refractors after sunset from urban light
polluted skies. The Belmont Society Colorful Double Star List
describes 56 Per as "gold/yellow" The primary of this binary is a v5.8
F4V star only 42 parsecs distant. The 56 Per binary at ~ 42 parsecs at
G165.53-10.74 lies within the Local Bubble. This is a medium close
binary with 4.5" of separation.

Current CCDM data on 56 Per (CCDM 04246+3358, STT81) a

C PA Sep VMag
A 5.9
B 030 4.5 8.7

56 Per is about 6 degs east of ksi Per and zet Per. A courtesy star
hopping finder chart is provided at:

http://members.csolutions.net/fisher..._56Starhop.jpg

From a light polluted urban setting, there are no significant asterisms
to star hop between ksi or zet Per to 56 Per. 56 Per sits in a
realtively empty space between Per and Aur. But 56 Per is located in an
easily seen "hockey stick" asterim consisting of 56 Per, 55 Per,
HIP20570 in the "bat" and 54 Per being the stick handle. See the
finder chart.

I first found this hockey stick asterim using 8x35 binos with a 5.5°
TFOV. Once the position was mentally fixed with respect to ksi and zet
Per, I used a 3° dot finder to mark off 6 degrees of easterly RA
sweep. Using my lowest feasible magnification (22x) and greatest TFOV,
I was able to nip one side of the hockey stick asterism and the center
the 3 three stars of the "bat" - 56 Per, 55 Per and HIP20570 in the
eyepiece.

In a small alt-az 60mm refractor under urban Bortle class 8 mag 3.0
light-polluted urban skies at 22x, 56 Per appears as a single star -
giving no hint of its binary character. The base of the "bat" -
HIP20570 - appears as a fainter but fuzzy multiple. Applying more
magnification down to 77x, 56 Per splits into two very pleasing - and
to my vision - equal magnitude gold stars. The equal magnitude
appearance is not consistent with the catalogue reported values. After
all the work it takes to find 56 Per, it was pleasant suprise.
However, to do this binary full justice, I'll have to revisit 56 Per
with 5" to 10" of aperature.

In contrast, HIP20570, in a light polluted setting, does not improve
with more magnification. Its components are too faint to resolve
against an urban light polluted sky.

Current CCDM data for HIP20570 (CCDM04244+3418, STF533)
, Epoch 2000, is:

C PA Sep V
A 7.2
B 061 19.6 8.7
C 190 110.3 ?.?


While in the neighborhood, it may also be worth checking out zet Per
(STF464, CCDM03541+3153) itself. This is a complex five component
multiple. But I'll leave zet Per for another night.

All-in-all, this was a nice 30-40 minutes of not-so-easy after-work
beer-in-hand viewing at 41N.

The Belmont Society Colorful Double Star list can be found at:
http://www.belmontnc.4dw.net/dblstrs.htm

- Canopus56