by Jay LeBlanc
I've been observing from a list of targets binned in 1 hour wide by 10 deg high increments for a few years, and have been annoyed to find at the start of each observing two such areas which have stubbornly refused to let me check them off, one contains Sirius and the other Procyon. No matter how steady the night I could not see either companion!
I was treated to a fine night earlier this month, on my unscientific and totally arbritrary seeing scale it was an easy 8/10, with transparency to match. I tried Sirius in the conventional fashion, running through a range of powers and saw nothing that resembled a companion, save an odd reflection now and again.
I remembered, in desperation, I had tracked down IC 349, Barnard's Merope Nebula some time back, and had an eyepiece rigged with an occulting bar which I used with considerable advantage on this rather bright and small nebula next to Merope. So I cheated by using this ocular, and after only a moment, saw the 8th mag Pup!
Naturally I decided Proceyon might possibly show its companion with this device, and after fussing around a bit, there it was, a bit fainter, and about the same separation.