Telescopium, the Telescope, is a southern constellation created in 1752 by the French astronomer Lacaille. Its western part, where its brighter stars are found, sits just south of Corona Australis.
The first of our doubles is HJ 5033, nearly two degrees northeast from 3.7-magnitude Theta Arae. This bright orange star has two obvious, 10th-magnitude, fairly wide companions (B and D), and a third (C) much fainter, in a quite starry field. All three companions were visible with an 18-cm aperture at 100×. Small scope observers may find the 12th-magnitude C companion is too faint.
North from HJ 5033, another John Herschel discovery, HJ 5034, is placed between Epsilon Tel and Alpha Tel. With 18cm at 100× this one was a beautiful, somewhat unequal close pair, moderately bright and in a…