This is one of those instances where diffraction spikes may actually be helpful. Spencer, if you can fashion a thin cardboard strip that you can place over your secondary/corrector plate, it will cause two diffraction spikes 180-degrees apart. The spikes will draw some of the glare off of Sirius A and if you rotate so Sirius B is 90-degrees to the spikes, it may help. 1/4" wide is enough. If the upper atmosphere is at all in motion, however, it may be a lost cause. You need pretty steady seeing to see it. You may want to try as early as possible, as soon as Sirius is visible, even before dark. On Tue, Mar 20, 2012 at 2:47 PM, Spencer Ball <spencer@spencerball.com>wrote:
Dave,
I have a Celestron 14" SCT. I have tried to place Sirius just outside of the upper left field of view (upper right before the star diagonal changes it) so I could see Sirius B without so much glare. But it doesn't work. It seems that I just must be picking all the wrong fuzzy days!
I'll try again. I see it has moved farther north than I had thought.