Astronomical Association of Queensland

Between Scorpius and Centaurus, Lupus seems to be overlooked when enjoying the rich star-fields of this area of the Milky Way. The major stars of Lupus are bright enough to use the star-hopping method to locate the many interesting objects contained within. For this month I thought we should take a look at some of the fine double stars found in this area. The Milky Way starfields make the perfect background to view the numerous doubles listed below. All observations were made with a 150mm f8 refractor.

h 4690 (14h 37.3m RA, -46° 08' Dec) - a truly glorious sight at 40x, a beautiful wide orange/blue pair set among the background star field.

Eta Lupi (16h 00.1m RA, -38° 24' Dec) - another easily split pair at 40x, set amongst a scattering of bright stars.

Pi Lupi (15h 05.1m RA, -47° 03' Dec) - now for a complete contrast, test yourself on this pair of similar magnitude stars, I needed 240x to obtain a split.

Xi Lupi (15h 56.9m RA, -33° 58' Dec) - another easy 40x separation of two pale yellow stars of similar brightness.

HR 5642 (15h 11.6m RA, -45° 17' Dec) - easily located in a wide field eyepiece just east of Lambda Lupi is a very pretty wide pair in an attractive star field. The brighter star of approx mag. six is a red colour with a hint of green to its fainter companion.

Mu Lupi (15h 18.5m RA, -47° 53' Dec) - there is a hint of red colour to the secondary star, with the primary star itself having a close companion of similar magnitude, which I was unable to resolve until the night of my third attempt @ 320x – try it yourself, and see how successful you are.

Epsilon Lupi (15h 22.7m RA, -44° 41' Dec) - this is another very wide, very easy pair at 40x. To me the fainter companion has a slight hint of red colour.

Kappa Lupi (15h 11.9m RA, -48° 44' Dec) - yet another beautiful bright pair set in a background of bright stars. 40x will resolve these with ease.

h 4776 (15h 30.4m RA, -41° 55' Dec) - between Gamma and Epsilon is a delicate pair of unequal magnitude which can just be split with 80x.

CapO 62 (14h 58.5m RA, -47° 26' Dec) & h 4715 (14h 56.5m RA, -47° 53' Dec) - located between Alpha and Pi are two pair of doubles in the same low magnification field of view. You should be able to see a fainter orange/blue pair (CapO 62) easily with 40x. By contrast, the brighter star h 4715 nearby will need 120x to reveal its companion of similar brightness.

IC 4406 (14h 22.4m RA, -44° 09' Dec) - A planetary nebula just visible at 40x, and a clear small fuzz at 120x.

NGC 5927 (15h 28.0m RA, -50° 40' Dec) - globular clusters are one of my favourite deep sky objects. Check out this beautiful cluster in a fine bright star field. At 40x it is a pretty delicate haze best seen with averted vision. 120x failed to resolve any of the groups’ individual stars.

NGC 5986 (15h 46.1m RA, -37° 47' Dec) - is also a haze at 40x, with individual stars just visible using averted vision at 120x. See if you can spot the one brighter star near the edge of the group. This globular was a good reminder to me of how atmospheric conditions can affect viewing. On the first two nights of observing (through temperature inversions) for this article I was unable to find this object at all. However on my third attempt on a clear still night it was not difficult to locate visually.

Click here for a finder chart for Lupus looking south at 9:00 pm on 1 July 2005.

Click here for a chart of Lupus showing the location of the deep sky objects mentioned above.

AAQ Visual Observing Section

Selected Deep Sky Objects In Lupus