HD033203 - a colorful after-work double spring/winter double - Apr

HD033203 in Aur, currently favorably positioned (J052512.00+345136.0)
for 41N op's, is visible in small refractors after sunset from urban
light polluted skies. Mullaney's _Celestial Harvest_ describes this
HD033023 as "gold & bluish-red." The primary of this binary is a v6.8
B2II star and of unknown distance.

Current CCDM data on HD033203 (CCDM05103+3719, STF0644) a

C PA Sep VMag
A 6.8
B 221 1.6 7.1
C 15 72.6 9.4

HD033203 is about 3 degs southeast of the "Kids" in Aur (eps Aur, zet
Aur and eta Aur), 1 deg southwest of mu Aur. Courtesy star hopping
finders chart are provided at:

http://members.csolutions.net/fisher...r_HD033023.jpg
http://members.csolutions.net/fisher..._HD033203B.jpg

From a light polluted urban setting, there are no significant bright
star asterisms to star hop between the Kids to HD033203. HD033203 sits
in a "flying wedge" asterim in a relatively empty star field. I found
the best method to locate it was to practice direct sweeping southeast
down the centerline of the Kids to mu Aur using binoculars. A second
direct sweep southwest 1 deg takes one to the flying wedge asterim -
the only significant asterim within three degrees of mu Aur. See the
finder charts. Once the position was mentally fixed with respect to
the Kids, I used a 3° dot finder and my lowest feasible magnification
(22x) and greatest TFOV to mark off 3 degrees of southweasterly RA
sweep.

In a small alt-az 60mm refractor under urban Bortle class 8 mag 3.0
light-polluted urban skies at 22x, HD033203 appears as a single star.
Applying more magnification down to 77x in a small refractor, HD033203
just splits into two stars with interconnect diffraction rings.
Mullaney's _Celestial Harvest_ describes this double with a B2II
primary as "gold & bluish-red." At this apeture and light pollution
level, these colors were not evident. I plan to revisit HD033203 from
a darker sky site.

Looking at the finder chart -

http://members.csolutions.net/fisher..._HD033203B.jpg

- two other stars in the flying wedge asterim are doubles. In a small
refractor apeture, the brighter multiple at the north base of the
flying wedge appears quasi-stellar - hinting at its nature. In an
urban light polluted setting, it was not possible to separate that
mulitiple with small apetures.

All-in-all, this was a nice 20-30 minutes of not-so-easy after-work
beer-in-hand viewing at 41N.

- Canopus56