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) are: 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/fisherka/astronote/finder/Aur_HD033023.jpg http://members.csolutions.net/fisherka/astronote/finder/Aur_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/fisherka/astronote/finder/Aur_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 __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com