Deep Sky Journeys to Struve 2816
I could be wrong about the designation of Struve 2816. I orginally began this journey with a trip to IC 1396, an open cluster with nebulosity according to the catalog. In the center of the eyepiece appeared a beautiful triple star. Burnham's "Handbook" refers to Struve 2816 as a triple star group in the heart of IC 1396 so I assumed it to describe the triple in my field of view. The open cluster here is also cataloged as Trumpler 37.
I've long been fascinated with the Struve catalog and continually search for a good reference to it. So far Burnham's "Handbook" and Sky Catalog 2000 will occasionally reference Struve's catalog numbers. You'll see these designations in Sky & Telescope star hops as well. Wilhelm Struve was an early double and mulitiple star hunter in the early 1800's. His son Otto followed in his father footsteps till early in this century.
The picture above offers a one-degree view of IC 1396. No nebulosity was noted with any of my filters. It's main highlight being some attractive pairings as described below. A finder chart is included offering a suggested route through the constellation Cepheus.
Mu Cephei is a suggested starting point. It is a beautiful red/yellow star among the reddist I've seen. My observing log is offered below:
Observer: Randy Moench Your skill: Intermediate Date and UT of observation: 12/26/97 19:30 MST; 12/27/97 02:30 UTC Location & latitude: Poudre Park, Colorado, 40d 41' Site classification: Rural Limiting magnitude (visual): 5.9 Seeing (1 to 5 - best to worst): 4 Moon up (phase?): No Instrument: 7 inch f/15 Maksutov-Cassegrain with 80 mm f/3.2 finder. Magnification: 83, 109, 148, 193. Filters used: Orion Skyglow, Lumicon UHC and OIII. Object: IC1396 and Trumpler 37 Category: Open cluster with nebulosity. Constellation: Cepheus Object data: Mag: 3.5, Size: 154.0'x140.0', Number of stars: 50, Mag. of brightest star: 3.8 F,eL neby,incl Struve 2816 RA/DE: RA: 21h 39m 6s Dec: +57° 47' 00" Description: A beautiful triple star association marks the center of my 52' field of view. The brightest star in the association appears to be SAO33626 according to my skycharting software - SkyMap. To my eyes the brightest appears to be then "center" star of the three having the most "yellow" appearance. Each star in the triplet offers a different color making it a real gem. The cluster is designated Trumpler 37 in the heart of IC1396. Other notable doubles lie in the 31' field of my 18-mm eyepiece. Above (east?) of the triple lies a pair with quite unequal magnitudes. The companion was best seen with averted vision, becoming more apparent at 193 times with my 13.8-mm eyepiece. Another faint pairing lies below and right (SW?) of the bright triple. No nebulosity was detected in either the widefield 80-mm refractor or the 7-inch Maksutov using Skyview, UHC or OIII filters. Conspicuous in the 5-degree field of the 80-mm finder was mu Cephei, magnitude 4. A very yellow/red star. Probably the reddest I've seen to date.
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