Object: South 529

Constellation
RA / DEC
Magnitude A / B / C
Separation A-BC/ AC
Position angle A-BC / AC
Spectral class A / B / C
Colour A / B / C
: Gemini
: 06:38:10 / +12.09
: 7.6 / 9.0 / 8.3
: 56" / 142"
: 137° / 168°
: G5 / ? / F8
: Yellow / Red / White
Detail sketch:
Date / Time
Observing Location
Seeing / Transparency
Telescope
Eye-piece
Magnification / Field of View '
: 16/02/10 / 21:00
: Landgraaf
: 5 / 3
: Orion Optics UK 300mm
: 17mm Pentax XW
: 94 / 52
South 529 Sketch

Observing Report

This wonderful little triple star was very easy to find. It lies in Gemini, but very close to the border with Monoceros. With my low power eyepiece, the 35mm Panoptic, which gives me a true field of view of 1.5 degrees, I started a Xi Geminorum. About 1.3 degrees to the west I found a star of magnitude 6. From there I moved the scope about 1 degree southwest to find a 7th magnitude star, which is South 529. In the 17mm Nagler this colourful triple look s gorgeous. As you can see on the sketch to the right, the three components are oriented north-south in a crooked line. The magnitude 7.3 A-component looks yellow, the magnitude 8.3 C component looks white. The magnitude 9 B component looks definitely red. The colour-contrast between these three stars is simply stunning.

There were no other significant stars visible in the field of view. To the north lies a small chain of four fainter stars and to the west I could see a chain of three faint stars.

Notes

An experienced deepsky observer, Yves Verbrugge from Belgium, told me that he observed this beautiful triple star some time ago. The only resource I could find something about South 529 was Alan Mc. Roberts book "Star-Hopping for backyard astronomers". Strange, because this is really a wonderful object to observe. Also on the internet there is very little to find on South 529, or it's individual components. For the reddish C-component I even cannot find the spectral class. The data for separation and position angle were taken from the Washington Double Star Catalogue. South 529 is registered as 06376+1211S 529AB. But then, sometimes there is little to tell about an object, but the most important thing is of course the observation and the aesthetic beauty of this triple.

What I did find on the internet was a wonderful wide-field image of the Rosette and Cone Nebulae, made by Rogelio Bernal Andrea. This image was APOD on February 14th 2010. On this image you can see the Rosette Nebula and Cone nebula, as well as South 529 and Xi Geminorum. Thank you Rogelio for letting me use your image for my story of South 529.
South 529 with nebula names
South 529

Overview of Rosette / Cone nebulae area.

Move mouse over image to identify objects
(Image by Rogelio Bernal Andrea)

South Detail - with text
South 529

Detailed view of South 529 area. South 529 is at the centre of the image.

Move mouse over image to identify objects

(Image by Rogelio Bernal Andrea).
The A component is HD 47127, the B component is SAO 95911 and the C component is HD 47128.