Paper detail

Improved orbits and parallaxes for eight visual binaries with unrealistic previous masses using the Hipparcos parallax

Improved orbits are presented for the visual binaries WDS 02366+1227, WDS 02434-6643, WDS 03244-1539, WDS 08507+1800, WDS 09128-6055, WDS 11532-1540, WDS 17375+2419, and WDS 22408-0333. The latest orbits for these binaries were demonstrating a great inconsistency between the systemic mass obtained through Kepler's Third Law and that calculated as a sum of their components' mass through standard mass-luminosity and mass-spectrum relationships. Our improvement allowed us to obtain consistent systemic masses for WDS 02434-6643 and WDS 09128-6055 without a need for changing the Hipparcos parallax. For the remaining 6 pairs, we suggest the use of their dynamical parallax as a reliable distance estimate unless more precise parallax is reported. Astrophysical and dynamical properties of individual objects are discussed.