Sirius B success!

I live at 45 degrees north, so at best Sirius is quite low in my winter sky, and I've never seen its white dwarf companion star through my own scope at this latitude. I know a person who's seen it through a 6-inch f/8 scope from Southern California, so saying I've seen it through a 28-inch scope doesn't seem like much, but it's a big deal for me!

I had just finished observing NGC 2336 and IC 467 two nights ago when the sky became mostly overcast, but there were still some holes in the clouds. The seeing was quite steady so I pointed the scope at Sirius just as it appeared through a clear spot in the clouds. At low power Sirius was a marvelous sight, and I quickly upped the magnification to 408x. To my amazement, Sirius looked still looked sharp, and was surrounded by wavering diffraction rings no less.

Not knowing where to look for Sirius B, I scanned around and to my utter delight quickly found it, just off the northeast diffraction spike - a tiny but definite spark of a star. Woohoo! I couldn't have been more excited! Clouds covered it up too soon, and when the next clearing appeared I was ready with 547x. Sirius B was just as definite, and Sirius A was again a tight ball of incredible brightness surrounded by shimmering diffraction rings. More excitement - I may have done a little happy dance, but there are no witnesses to confirm that report...

Attachment 4208

Over the next 30 minutes I chased small openings in the clouds, and had maybe a total of two minutes of sharp views of Sirius B. I discovered it didn't take much atmospheric turbulence to smear the image of this little star into invisibility, which underscored why I had always failed to see it in the past - the seeing needs to be very steady for success. The sky soon became completely overcast and I was finished for the night.

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Of course, the forecast was for clear skies all night, and this unwelcome cloud covered only my little portion of Oregon - the rest of the state stayed clear. The red dot in the weather satellite image is my location under the cloud, and the green dot is a friend who enjoyed a full night of clear skies and steady seeing. Even so, this was a memorable night for me, and I'm grateful for finally being to see this tiny white dwarf star in my own scope.

The orientation of my sketch is north down, east to the right. There's a much brighter field star just off the same diffraction spike, but much further away than Sirius B.

Way to go Howard! I too am at 45 degrees north. The Pup is truly a challenging object for those of us at this latitude. I observed it in a 16" scope at one of my club's dark sites about two years ago. I was fortunate to have two other members / witnesses with me. It seems that it is a very elusive object unless you are living in the SW USA with steady skies. Two years ago was my first and last time of observing that object. I had tried everything - including the pizza box technique many times - to no avail. Congratulations.

Congrats Howard! The next few years offer us the best looks with separation. I too had success in 2021 at 40 degrees N during a steady night. I used my 22" scope at 337x and 450x to tease out the pup. After 30+ years of observing it was a first.

Congrats Howard. I have seen the pup with my 12" dob from Spain at 40° north latitude several times a few years ago. Last night it was very steadily visible in my 20" at 320 x from Chile but the seeing was great and Sirius was high in the sky.

Hi Howard, It's always super satisfying when you finally see an object that you've been after for awhile, Sirius B is pretty easy for me living in Florida, even in my 15. But I have had that excitement you had with finally seeing the pup with another object. For 12yrs I have looked for but couldn't detect large planetary nebula EGB6 in Leo and finally last year on a night with very good seeing I saw a very faint crescent with a DGM filter, I almost passed out! I had to get a fellow observer to confirm it and I was on cloud nine all that night! Happy for you, Raul