One night I was studying M44, looking for Binaries and multiple star system when I found some data on a star system using your app Skysafari 6 Pro. The stars in question are:
- HR 3428 A,
- SAO 98023D and
- HD 73709C.
These stars are components yet their distances from our solar system are widely given:
- HR 3428 A is listed as 712 ly,
- SAO is listed at 54 ly, and
- HD 73709 is listesd as 235 ly.
If these stars are component stars (as your app - SkySafari 6 pro- states) and they are part of the open cluster, Beehive Cluster, then their distances should not be so wide apart.
According to WDS catalogue they are related (along with STF 1254 AB) and your app acknowledges this. Checking further with SIMBAD Astronomical Database shows their distances as
- HR 3428 A as being 607 ly,
- SAO 98923 D as 614 ly and
- HD 73709 as 621 ly
These numbers are more in line with the general distance of M 44 being 610 ly. These stars in this cluster should show relatively close proper motion and they do.
I can't imagine the number of man-hours it took for your team to input the data into your app so could mistakes happen? Absolutely. I figure it's up to users to help and find any mistakes, hence why I am contacting you. Maybe in a future update this can be fixed.
