The view in a 6" at 270x. North is down, East is to the right.
Also known as i Boo, HD 133640 and Struve 1909, this is a long-period binary star system that lies a mere 42 light years away. Currently these stars are 2.2" apart, forming a nearly identical pair with little color.
The brighter star is quite sunlike; a 4.8 magnitude G1 main sequence star. The fainter component is much more interesting. It is a close binary system made up of component stars that cannot be split even in the largest of telescopes. Every 6 hours and 25 minutes an eclipse occurs where one of these stars passes in front of the other causing the total light of the system to drop from 6.5 to 7.1 magnitude. This is enough of a drop to be visible in the eyepiece to the careful observer.
