Observation of Double Stars
Visual double stars are defined as double stars which are visible in an optical telescope. This is the majority of all known double stars. If visual doubles show similar properties, such as similar proper motion through space, trigonometric parallaxes, or radial velocities, this is evidence that they are gravitationally attached and form a binary system; in this case, the visual double star is called a visual binary.
Observation of visual double stars by visual measurement will yield the separation, or angular distance, between the two component stars in the sky and the position angle. The position angle specifies the direction in which the stars are separated and is defined as the bearing from the brighter component to the fainter, where north is 0°. These measurements are called measures. In the measures of a visual binary, the position angle will change progressively and the separation between the two stars will oscillate between maximum and minimum values. Plotting the measures in the plane will produce an ellipse. This is the apparent orbit, the projection of the orbit of the two stars onto the celestial sphere; the true orbit can be computed from it. Although it is expected that the majority of catalogued visual doubles are visual binaries, orbits have been computed for only a few thousand of the over 100,000 known visual double stars.
Read more about this topic: Double Star
Famous quotes containing the words observation, double and/or stars:
“Its a particular Observation I have always made, That of all Mortals, a Critick is the silliest; for by inuring himself to examine all Things, whether they are of Consequence or not, he never looks upon any Thing but with a Design of passing Sentence upon it; by which Means, he is never a Companion, but always a Censor.”
—Richard Steele (16721729)
“O, my offense is rank, it smells to heaven;
It hath the primal eldest curse upon t,
A brothers murder. Pray can I not,
Though inclination be as sharp as will;
My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent,
And like a man to double business bound
I stand in pause where I shall first begin,
And both neglect. What if this cursed hand
Were thicker than itself with brothers blood,
Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens
To wash it white as snow?”
—William Shakespeare (15641616)
“With a tongue like a razor he will kiss,
the mother, the child,
and we three will color the stars black
in memory of his mother
who kept him chained to the food tree
or turned him on and off like a water faucet....”
—Anne Sexton (19281974)