Abstract
One of the difficulties of observing and accurately measuring the relative positions and magnitudes of components of double stars is their mutual interference. Either one component is much brighter than the other, or the apparent separation between them is too small to be resolved by the optical system, particularly in the presence of distortion by the Earth’s atmosphere. Ideally the components could be obscured one after the other to allow unambiguous observation of the companion as well as an estimate of the separation between them. This in essence is the principle behind application of the occultation technique to the observation of double stars.
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Appleby, G., Argyle, R.W. (2012). Lunar Occultations. In: Argyle, R.W. (eds) Observing and Measuring Visual Double Stars. Patrick Moore’s Practical Astronomy Series. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-3945-5_21
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-3945-5_21
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