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The Historical Contribution of Amateurs to the Study of Double Stars

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

P. Couteau
P. Couteau*
Affiliation:
Observatoire de Nice, B.P. 139, F-06003 Nice, France

Extract

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Double stars are favourite objects for amateurs, who can see them with modest instruments and easily observe their eventual motion. Moreover, it is possible to calculate their orbits, and even masses, with no other equipment than a pencil, a piece of thread and two pins to draw the ellipses that these systems have been following for centuries.

Binary stars are part of those classes of objects whose geometrical structure remains the same at different scales, they are internally homothetic and represent a field to which fractal geometry may be applied. All this explains the popularity of these objects with amateurs: anyone is able to see some of them, whatever the power of their instruments.

Type
Part I Historical
Information
International Astronomical Union Colloquium , Volume 98: Stargazers: The Contribution of Amateurs to Astronomy , 1988 , pp. 15 - 19
Copyright
Copyright © Springer-Verlag 1988

References

Bibliography - Limited to Fundamental Works

Aitken, R.G., New General Catalogue of Double Stars, Vols I & II, Carnegie Institute, Washington D.C., 1938: 17 180 pairs with measurements and referencesGoogle Scholar
Burnham, S.W., A General Catalogue of Double Stars, Parts I & II, Carnegie Institute, Washington D.C., 1906: 13 665 pairs with measurements and referencesGoogle Scholar
Dawes, W.R., his observations are gathered together in Mem. Roy. astron. Soc., 5 (1833), 8 (1836), 19 (1851) and 35 (1867)Google Scholar
Dembowski, E., Misure Micrometriche de Stella Doppie e Multiple, 2 Vols, Reale Academia Lincei, 1883 & 1884Google Scholar
Herschel, J.F.W. Sir., “A Catalogue of 10 300 Multiple and Double Stars”, Mem. Roy. astron. Soc., 40 1874); covers the discoveries made by both the Herschels father and son, but is just an index and contains no epochs or measurementsGoogle Scholar
Jeffers, H.M., van den Bos, W.H. & Greeby, F.M., Index Catalogue of Visual Double Stars, 1961: list of more than 60 000 pairs from pole to poleGoogle Scholar
Jonckheere, R., Catalogue and measures of Double Stars, Mem. Roy. astron. Soc., 51, 1916 Google Scholar
Schiaparelli, G.V., Misure di Stella Doppie, 2 Vols, Brera, Milan, 1888 Google Scholar
Struve, F.G.W., Stellarum duplicum et multiplicum mensurae micrometricae, Dorpat Observatory, 1837: the famous Dorpat catalogueGoogle Scholar