SUNSET: 
0
Photographer:
myron wasiuta
Location of Photo:
Delta Equulei
Date/Time of photo:
September 15, 2024
Equipment:
26” refractor at Leander McCormick Observatory QHY 5L- IIM camera Wratten 12 filter ( yellow)
Description:
This image shows the extremely close visual binary star Delta Equulei which has one of the shortest orbital periods of all the visual binaries (5.7 years). Its separation at the time of this image was between 0.2”-0.3”. I used the lucky imaging technique with a QHY 5L-IIM camera with a yellow filter to suppress the chromatic aberration. Exposure duration was 10 ms, and I stacked 267 images for this final rendition. I also used a 2x Barlow to increase the EFl of the telescope to about 20 meters! I hope to make an animation showing this binary through one orbit and am working with a team at LMO to establish an imaging protocol for this project. Due to the ease at which this star was split both visually ( we used 2850x) and in our images- I am thinking about going after BD -8 4352 next.
