WDS 06451-1643 AGC 1 AB (Sirius) : NOTES
 
 
discov_num notes refcode
AGC 1 AB: Sirius = alp CMa = 9 CMa.
Bessel, in 1834, notes that the proper motion was variable and, in his
letter to Humboldt, stated that "..Procyon and Sirius are genuine
binary systems, each consisting of a visible and an invisible star."
Not quite invisible, this large dm pair consisting of a main sequence
A star and a white dwarf was first resolved by Alvan G. Clark on 31
January 1862 in the process of of testing the 18.5" refractor. See
notes by Burnham and Aitken. Bu_1906
The separation for the 1862.275 measurement by Lassell is reported as Lsl1862
4.92". This is clearly incorrect and not consistent with measurements
by other observers. WDS catalogers assume an factor of 2 error and
correct separation to 9.84".
Otto Struve lists a measurement of Sirius in 1861.21. However, this Stt1893a
predates the discovery of the companion Sirius B by A. Clark and his
son on 1962 Jan 31 and the first formal measurement by G. P. Bond on
1862 February 7. Comparing the uncorrected PA and separation in
Struve's table in 1893 with the measurements published by Struve, we Stt1864
suspect that 1861.21 is a typo and should refer to the observation on
1863-Mar-16.
Companion almost hidden behind secondary mirror diffraction ray from
Sirius B was never observed at these position angles until the early Sea1882
20th century. We suspect that this is a clerical error and that the
measurements pertain to another system.
For the 1882.988 measurement the PA is listed as 41.6 deg and is Bu_1883
40.6 in another. Bu_1883b
Many of the recovery observations of Sirius B following the periastron
passage after 1890 are doubtful. The recovery observations made by See1896d
See, Douglass, and Cogshall at Lowell Observatory from 1896.668 to Dgl1896
1896.695 were taken in the morning shortly before sunrise when Sirius Cog1896a
was low in the sky. See notes that the mean position angle of 220 deg
at 5.10" is about 30 deg behind its predicted location and the sep
sep is larger than expected based on previous orbit fit. Aitken and A__1896d
Schaeberle reported measurements between 1896.814-1897.027 made from Shb1897a
Lick Observatory at a significantly different mean position angle of
189 deg and 3.7". Both Aitken and Schaeberle comment that neither of
them saw a star at the position reported by Dr. See. Following the
contradictory reports, Stimson J. Brown published observations from Brs1896
his logbook that were taken earlier in March 1896 at the USNO. The
position angle is similar to the values reported by Aitken, but the
separation is about 1" larger. Brown notes that the observations were
taken under challenging conditions and he did not have much confidence
in their reliability. See later refuted his earlier measurements See1897e
after unsuccessfully searching for the companion while observing from
Mexico and then successfully detecting the companion at a pa of 175 deg
and 4.6" in September 1897 at Lowell. He writes, "The erroneous
conclusion to which I was led last year seems to have arisen from a
very unusual and entirely unexpected cause, of which we need not
speak here..." In hindsight, See also reported in that publication,
two observations from April 1895 that he initially did not think were
worthy of announcing. The difficulty in attempting to find Sirius B
using the Lick Observatory 36 inch in February and March of 1896 was
described by William J. Hussey. Hu_1896
See1900d and Brs1900d measures : "All of the observations have been See1900d
thoroughly checked. A number of errors were discovered in the earlier Brs1900d
reductions and corrected. These reductions have also been slighty See1911
changed by the adoption of a later and better determined value of a Brs1911a
revolution of the micrometer screw. This will account for small
discrepanacies between the results published here and those previously
published in the astronomical periodicals."
For the 1904.186 measuremment by T. Lewis, the title of the article, L__1904
text, and first page of the data table all refer to observations taken
in 1904. Subsequent pages of the data table (including the page that
Sirius is listed on) list an epoch of 1903. However, this is probably a
typo, so date corrected the date to be in 1904.
Sirius A. B__1959a
Hipparcos astrometric solution adopted some elements from the orbit of HIP1997d
Gatewood & Gatewood (1978). Gat1978
AB: Malkov et al. (2012) derive dynamical, photometric, and
spectroscopic masses 3.08 +/- 0.42, 2.46, and 2.19 Msun, respectively. Mlk2012
BC: Suspected by Fox in 1920, also reported by Innes, van den Bos, and A__1932a
Finsen. Other observers fail to confirm duplicity of B. Single 1945, B__1929a
1946, 1949, 1950. Recovered by Popovic in 1975 at approximately the Fin1929a
the same position as the 1929 resolutions. If these are periodic, the Pop1977b
next approximate time for resolution is 2020. Therefore, since we
believe the detections of C to be real, but likely of a background
optical interloper, BC carries a "U" code and not an "X" code.
However, very compelling argument that this is a chance allignment of Lec2000
a non-physical background star appearing close to Sirius AB is the
1920-30 time period is now assumed.
Time displacement residuals over a period of 6.8y are linear ruling Ldb1973
out a 6.4y perturbation with an amplitude of 0.14". There is no
evidence of a close companion with this nature associated with Sirius.
Otto Struve corrected his measurements for systematic errors by Stt1893a
measuring artificial double stars. He provided both the original and
corrected measures of the separation and position angle for the
companion of Sirius. Aitken cautions that the variance of the angles A__1935f
and distances compared with other observers is often larger for
Struve's corrected values. However in the case of Struve's measurements
of the companion of Sirius, Bond et al. mean residuals in the position BdH2017
angle improved when using the corrected values, while the residuals in
separation did not change significantly, so the corrected values are
reported here.
For the photographic observations by Lindenblad, tables are given for Ldb1970
the raw individual measures, while only the mean measures are corrected Ldb1973
for emulsion contraction. The average time span covered by these mean
measures is ~ 70 nights, so we used Lindenblad's tabulated scale BdH2017
corrections to compute corrected separations and position angles for
the individual measurements. We then took the mean for plates taken on
the same night, reducing the number of individual measurements from 157
down to 77 measurements on unique dates.
X coded van Albada (1962) measures corrected for emulsion contraction. vAb1971
Jasinta & Hidayat (1999) did not correct these epochs for emulsion Jas19995
contraction.
Measure of Anton corrected in a later publication. Ant2010
Ant2012
Schroeder measure re-reducted and corrected in Bond Table 2. Shd2011
BdH2017
Sirius A mass is 2.063+/-0.023 \msun with an age of 242+/-5 Myr, BdH2017
a radius of 1.7144+/-0.0090 \rsun, luminosity of 24.74+/-0.70 \lsun,
and Teff of 9845+/-64 K. Sirius B mass is 1.018+/-0.011 \msun,
an age of 224(+34-19) Myr, a radius of 0.008098+/-0.000046 \rsun,
luminosity of 0.02448+/-0.00033 \lsun and Teff of 25,369+/-46 K.
Intensity Interferometer Limb-darkened diameter 5.89 +/- 0.16 mas. HBr1974
Mk III Limb-darkened diameter 5.993 +/- 0.108 mas. MkT2003
AD: Rectilinear solution by Mason & Hartkopf (2015). Msn2015a
HL 3 AE: Rectilinear solution by Mason & Hartkopf (2015). Msn2015a
BU 1411 AF: Rectilinear solution by Mason & Hartkopf (2015). Msn2015a
 
 
REFERENCES
 
 
refcode metd author reference
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DISCOVERER
 
 
idgroup discov author
1 AGC Clark, A.G.
2 BU Burnham, S.W. (BU 1 - 81)
180 HL Hall, A.
 
 
WDS HISTORIC DATA
 
 
coord_2000 discov_num comp epoch obs pa sep mag_pri mag_sec spectr notes coord_arcsec_2000
06451-1643 AGC 1 AB 1997 610 190 3.7 -1.46 8.50 A1Vm NODP 064509.25-164247.3
06451-1643 AGC 1 AB 2009 612 95 8.4 -1.46 8.50 A1Vm NODP 064509.25-164247.3
06451-1643 AGC 1 AB 2010 638 92 8.9 -1.46 8.50 A1Vm NODP 064508.92-164258.0
06451-1643 AGC 1 AB 2011 640 88 9.3 -1.46 8.50 A1Vm NODP 064508.92-164258.0
06451-1643 AGC 1 AB 2013 642 83 9.6 -1.46 8.50 A1Vm NODP 064508.92-164258.0
06451-1643 AGC 1 AB 2015 639 80 10.7 -1.46 8.50 A1Vm NO P 064508.92-164258.0
06451-1643 AGC 1 AB 2016 640 76 10.9 -1.46 8.50 A1Vm NO P 064508.92-164258.0
06451-1643 AGC 1 AB 2020 2061 67 11.2 -1.47 8.44 A1Vm+DA2 NO P 064508.92-164258.0
06451-1643 AGC 1 AB 2021 2062 67 11.3 -1.47 8.44 A1Vm+DA2 NO P 064508.92-164258.0

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