Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 April 2016
When systematic photoelectric observations of occultations were started some dozen years ago it was realised that they yielded a significant crop of double star discoveries and observations. The limitations of the method were well recognised: only about ten percent of the area of the sky would ever be available and one could not choose which stars to be observed. Moreover the data obtained from a successful observation of a double star are less comprehensive than the normal visual observation. The result is the vector separation or the true separation projected along a line perpendicular to the actual lunar limb, that is the position angle of the point of occultation modified by the slope of the limb at that point.