Telescope Reviews: Carbon Star observing

· Get a Cloudy Nights T-Shirt

· Submit a Review / Article

Click here if you are having trouble logging into the forums

Privacy Policy | Please read our Terms of Service | Signup and Troubleshooting FAQ | Problems? PM a Red or a Green Gu… uh, User

You are not logged in. [Login]

Entrance · Main Index · Search · New user · Who's Online
FAQ · Calendar

Observing >> Variable Star Observing and Radio Astronomy

Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | (show all)

LivingNDixie
TSP Chowhound

Reged: 04/23/03

Loc: Trussville, AL

Carbon Star observing
#5045151 - 01/29/12 10:59 PM

I just started the Astronomical League observing pin list for Carbon Stars, it was exciting night this past Saturday. There were some beautiful stars on the list, was wondering if anyone else has worked on that list. Also most seem to be variables!

Post Extras:

RLTYS
Post Laureate

Reged: 12/18/04

Loc: New York (Long Island)

Re: Carbon Star observing new

[Re: LivingNDixie]
#5045412 - 01/30/12 05:59 AM

I completed it last October. You're right most of these carbon stars are variables. Good luck and happy observing.

Rich (RLTYS)

Post Extras:

LivingNDixie
TSP Chowhound

Reged: 04/23/03

Loc: Trussville, AL

Re: Carbon Star observing new

[Re: RLTYS]
#5045766 - 01/30/12 11:58 AM

Glad to hear someone else has done the list. I observed about 8 of them this weekend. The only issue I ran into was that some of the SAO numbers are not in the database for the LX200.

Post Extras:

stevecoe
"Astronomical Tourist"

Reged: 04/24/04

Loc: Arizona, USA

Re: Carbon Star observing new

[Re: LivingNDixie]
#5047203 - 01/31/12 02:00 AM

Preston;

I created a list on the SAC website www.saguaroastro.org

It has over 300 red stars, many are carbon stars, most are variables.

I don't know the LX 200 system but I have no doubt that there is a way to have it point at an RA and Dec that are given in the data.

They are beautiful stars, V Hyrae is just up nicely around 1 or 2 AM, it is the reddest star in the northern sky and it tied with Ruby Crucis.

Enjoy;
Steve Coe

Post Extras:

LivingNDixie
TSP Chowhound

Reged: 04/23/03

Loc: Trussville, AL

Re: Carbon Star observing new

[Re: stevecoe]
#5051876 - 02/02/12 02:53 PM

Quote:

Preston;

I created a list on the SAC website www.saguaroastro.org

It has over 300 red stars, many are carbon stars, most are variables.

I don't know the LX 200 system but I have no doubt that there is a way to have it point at an RA and Dec that are given in the data.

They are beautiful stars, V Hyrae is just up nicely around 1 or 2 AM, it is the reddest star in the northern sky and it tied with Ruby Crucis.

Enjoy;
Steve Coe

Cool list thanks!

What you describe is exactly what I did, enter the RA and Dec and just used that to find the stars. If it is clear this weekend I am going to try and get out and observe some more of them since light pollution and/or the Moon does not really make much of difference in viewing.

Post Extras:

blb
Post Laureate

Reged: 11/25/05

Loc: Piedmont NC

Re: Carbon Star observing new

[Re: LivingNDixie]
#5059479 - 02/06/12 11:24 PM

Does that club require you to make a sketch of the star field? and describe what you observe to? I have been thinking about doing it too.

Post Extras:

RLTYS
Post Laureate

Reged: 12/18/04

Loc: New York (Long Island)

Re: Carbon Star observing new

[Re: blb]
#5059865 - 02/07/12 08:09 AM

You need to do a brief description and a sketch showing at least five stars includeing the carbon star.

Rich (RLTYS)

Post Extras:

LivingNDixie
TSP Chowhound

Reged: 04/23/03

Loc: Trussville, AL

Re: Carbon Star observing new

[Re: blb]
#5060234 - 02/07/12 12:19 PM

Quote:

Does that club require you to make a sketch of the star field? and describe what you observe to? I have been thinking about doing it too.

You need to do it, it is great for those nice nights that have a Moon in the sky that washes out faint stuff, but is still a good night. Also light pollution is not as much as a problem either.

I am really enjoying the program so far.

Post Extras:

Daniel Mounsey
Vendor - Celestron

Reged: 06/12/02

Re: Carbon Star observing new

[Re: LivingNDixie]
#5086342 - 02/22/12 09:03 PM

I looooove carbon stars. Hind's Crimson in particular is Coke Can red right now and well placed.

Post Extras:

skyward_eyes

Reged: 12/12/06

Loc: California

Re: Carbon Star observing new

[Re: LivingNDixie]
#5086367 - 02/22/12 09:23 PM

Im not a huge star observer but Carbons are awesome to observe! Hind's crimson star is awesome as Daniel mentioned T-Lyra is also excellent.

Post Extras:

blb
Post Laureate

Reged: 11/25/05

Loc: Piedmont NC

Re: Carbon Star observing new

[Re: skyward_eyes]
#5116896 - 03/11/12 02:13 PM

I finally started the AL Carbon Star list last night. The first one was a bright cherry-orange, the second was an orangeish-yellow and the next four I could not detect any color in. I have trouble seeing color in stars that are fainter than 8th mag. I was using my 4-inch refractor and loving it until I got discouraged. What do you suggest? More aperture? Any suggestions would be helpful.

Post Extras:

RLTYS
Post Laureate

Reged: 12/18/04

Loc: New York (Long Island)

Re: Carbon Star observing new

[Re: blb]
#5117881 - 03/12/12 06:13 AM

I used a 10" refl for most of the AL Carbon Stars and I found a few of them showed very little color, if any, at all.

Rich (RLTYS)

Post Extras:

stevecoe
"Astronomical Tourist"

Reged: 04/24/04

Loc: Arizona, USA

Re: Carbon Star observing new

[Re: RLTYS]
#5118655 - 03/12/12 02:22 PM

If you have downloaded the SAC list then I put the "B-V" value in one of the columns. This value is a measure of how red the star will appear. It does change as the star goes through its variable cycle, reddest at the faintest. You can make your own list by pulling out the most positive value of B-V and go after only those stars.

Enjoy;
Steve Coe

Post Extras:

blb
Post Laureate

Reged: 11/25/05

Loc: Piedmont NC

Re: Carbon Star observing new

[Re: RLTYS]
#5118882 - 03/12/12 05:05 PM

Quote:

I used a 10" refl for most of the AL Carbon Stars and I found a few of them showed very little color, if any, at all.

Rich (RLTYS)

Then how did you know that you had found the correct star?

Post Extras:

RLTYS
Post Laureate

Reged: 12/18/04

Loc: New York (Long Island)

Re: Carbon Star observing new

[Re: blb]
#5119633 - 03/13/12 06:13 AM

Quote:

Quote:

I used a 10" refl for most of the AL Carbon Stars and I found a few of them showed very little color, if any, at all.

Rich (RLTYS)

Then how did you know that you had found the correct star?

When I did the program I downloaded an AAVSO Chart for each carbon star. When the Carbon Star wasn't a variable I made the AAVSO Chart using coordinates from the carbon star observing list. This showed exactly which star to observe.

Rich (RLTYS)

Post Extras:

dan777
professor emeritus

Reged: 11/16/07

Loc: Indiana

Re: Carbon Star observing new

[Re: stevecoe]
#5129461 - 03/18/12 10:20 PM

Quote:

It does change as the star goes through its variable cycle, reddest at the faintest.

Do we really understand why this is so?

BTW Steve, I've used the SAC list for quite a while - it's great!

Post Extras:

stevecoe
"Astronomical Tourist"

Reged: 04/24/04

Loc: Arizona, USA

Re: Carbon Star observing new

[Re: dan777]
#5129706 - 03/19/12 01:01 AM

Dan;

The star is faintest when the carbon cloud that the star builds up is thickest, this blocks off the most blue portion of the star's output and so it appears red. Most of them are an orange color to my eye.

Enjoy;
Steve Coe

Post Extras:

RLTYS
Post Laureate

Reged: 12/18/04

Loc: New York (Long Island)

Re: Carbon Star observing new

[Re: stevecoe]
#5129875 - 03/19/12 07:48 AM

Steve, in the AL Carbon Star Program I found that at least 60 of the 100 listed stars were anything from a pale orange to a deep orange.

Rich (RLTYS)

Post Extras:

Javier
Carpal Tunnel

Reged: 05/03/09

Loc: 15 Minutes west of the Manhatt...

Re: Carbon Star observing new

[Re: RLTYS]
#5144581 - 03/27/12 07:50 PM

I've been observing binary stars for three years now and I'm adding carbon stars to the list of objects to observe. Carbon stars are just great to observe.

Post Extras:

John_G
sage

Reged: 01/18/10

Re: Carbon Star observing new

[Re: Javier]
#5195248 - 04/28/12 04:26 PM

I had a look at Y CVn (La Superba) just recently. To my eye it looked a very deep orange. Very beautiful.

Post Extras:

Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | (show all)

Extra information

0 registered and 1 anonymous users are browsing this forum.

Moderator: RLTYS

Print Thread

Forum Permissions
      You cannot start new topics
      You cannot reply to topics
      HTML is disabled
      UBBCode is enabled

Thread views: 5160

Jump to

CN Forums

Home

Cloudy Nights LLC
Cloudy Nights Sponsor: Astronomics