This is sorta a spinoff of the seeing Andromeda with your naked eye thread- what stars have you been able to split with your naked eye? Here are the ones I've done so far myself; if anyone has another ones to add please add it to the list!
Mizar and Alcor- 11.8 arcminutes (trivia of the day: in order to get into the ancient Greek army you had to be able to split these as their vision)
Omricon 1 Cygni/ 30 Cygni- 5.5 arcminutes
Alpha Capricornus- 6 arcminutes (optical double but still)
Epsilon Lyrae- 208 seconds I believe
The Pleiades- ok this isn't that much a splitting thing but more a "how many can you see" thing... six is about average though they're known as the "seven sisters," and I personally have seen 12 on one particularly extraordinary night.

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I can't even split Mizar and Alcor, which tells you all you need to know about the quality of my naked eyesight!

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For me, Mizar and Alcor are borderline.

Funny story actually - the glasses I have now I got last January or February. Before then, I had been stuck with cheap ones prescribed by someone who didn't even bother to check for astigmatism. So then come late summer/early fall I'm outside doing something and I'm surprised to see these 2 stars really close together in the sky. Had to go look up which constellation was there and found out the double star was Alpha Capricorni. I'd never before knowingly seen it as a double.

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Well, that's probably a by-product of your body shaking from the cold. Try wearing clothes next time.

BTW, same here re resolution. There was a time when all those unaided doubles were easily resolvable. Then after years in quality-related pursuits, my distance vision got really bad. Then the close-up vision went bad. Now I can hardly see anything at all, no matter what the distance.
Retinas are still attached apparently. For the time being.

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A few months ago I had cataract surgery and my eyesight now is better than 20/20..However, my good eyesight cannot see thru the clouds and rain of South Florida..

Today, much to my surprise there was a comment from someone in the United Arab Emirates..Since I live in Florida, it must mean that my website has legs of it's own..~Lainie~The StarGazer~

My Astronomy website:

http://community.webtv.net/LAINIE121/doc

I'm in the same boat.

Thanks for your wonderful pics. Since my cataract surgery they are all I can see.

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[quote=Andromeda321]Here are the ones I've done so far myself; if anyone has another ones to add please add it to the list!
Mizar and Alcor- 11.8 arcminutes (trivia of the day: in order to get into the ancient Greek army you had to be able to split these as their vision)
QUOTE]

Hi all,
Here's even more triv on the ancient Greek army thing:
The spliting of Mizar was a test of night vision for special missions only! if the whole greek army could split Mizar then they would have been very few!
The star was called (and still is in some circles) Dokimi, which means "test" as in eye test.
Cheers
Ferg.

Oh by the way, try to split Zeta Leo. it's a beautiful triple star with lots of colours through binoculars. I split it last year in march with the naked eye. That was on the lovely island of Samos close to the Turkish shore line.

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<span style='color:red'><span style='font-size:10pt;line-height:100%'><span style='font-family:Optima'>Yet another blind watcher of the sky.</span></span></span>

[quote=Andromeda321]Here are the ones I've done so far myself; if anyone has another ones to add please add it to the list!
Mizar and Alcor- 11.8 arcminutes (trivia of the day: in order to get into the ancient Greek army you had to be able to split these as their vision)
[quote]

Hi all,
Here's even more triv on the ancient Greek army thing:
The spliting of Mizar was a test of night vision for special missions only! if the whole greek army could split Mizar then they would have been very few!
The star was called (and still is in some circles) Dokimi, which means "test" as in eye test.
Cheers
Ferg.

Oh by the way, try to split Zeta Leo. it's a beautiful triple star with lots of colours through binoculars. I split it last year in march with the naked eye. That was on the lovely island of Samos close to the Turkish shore line.

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<span style='color:red'><span style='font-size:10pt;line-height:100%'><span style='font-family:Optima'>Yet another blind watcher of the sky.</span></span></span>

Congratulations! The best I ever did was 11. Of course, I was much younger then (about your age). Also, I never saw them all at once. I would study the pattern with binoculars then wait for moments of good seeing , when one or two would flicker into view. But, then again, I was observing from a suburban site - I probably could have seen more from a truely dark site!

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Wow, a spawn thread



I've seen Alcor and Mizar. I can see them even through the purple haze we call St. Louis.

I never thought to look at the Pleiades when I was in the high desert or mountains. It just seemed that I would only ever see 6.

Alpha Capricorni I remember seeing a couple times, but as chance has it I'm always doing something interesting when that dim constellation arrives. (not trying to be bashed here, but I'm a Capricorn and I like candy corn)



I didn't even know to try Epsilon Lyrae or Omricon 1 Cygni/ 30 Cygni. My vision is better than most at any distance so I should be able to see these. Next clear night I'll look since they are up right now.

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See the short insert "Eye and I" by Fred Schaaf, on the bottom of page 82 in the November 2005 issue of Sky & Telescope.

Nu Draconis (Kuma) which has only 62 arcsecond separation, is supposedly the tightest double ever split naked eye.

Edited to add a related comment: I was always surprised that the ancients didn't have a record of the phases of Venus.

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I've tried, but have been unable to detect the phases of venus. It is very apparent that Venus isn't fully lit up as the disk that I see isn't fully round, but to see the phases... wow




I've never met a person with better eye sight than me... he/she could exist; it's possible.

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Some of my Astrophotography


Those that lack education have a hard time understanding its value. - Cross