pair · Boötes · a plate in Stars
Izar · Pulcherrima
ε Boötis
7 July · 8:28 PM. The looking learned that some pairs are not hidden. They are the point.
Color. Gold against blue. The girdle, the necklace, the most beautiful double in the northern spring sky.
From the letters
“Color. Gold against blue.”
Astronomy · astrophysics
- Magnitude
- 2.37 combined
- Distance
- about 202 light-years
- Spectrum
- K0 II-III + A2 V
- Coordinates
- 14h 45m · +27° 04′
A gold giant and a blue-white companion.
ε Boötis is a visual binary: a K-type bright giant and an A-type main-sequence star.
Separation on the order of a couple of arcseconds; period measured in centuries. Combined magnitude about 2.37. Distance about 202 light-years.
Historical story · naming
The most beautiful
- 19th centuryF. G. W. Struve called the pair Pulcherrima. The gold-against-blue contrast is observational, not poetic license.
Living
After the reversed names, the sky offered a pair you can see as two colors.
The Book does not force the gold-blue into a marriage. It lets the contrast remain a fact of light.
Sources
- SIMBAD
- WDS
- Struve double-star catalogues
Choir
Rotanev · SualocinSiriusIzar · PulcherrimaThubanCapellaRigelMeropeTolimanM42Jupiter · IoSpicaFomalhautArcturusAlhenaCanopusWorking choir · not a planetarium