TheSkySearchers

HI everyone - can you believe it is November already? I got 0 observing sessions in October, so those Carbon's are still on my list!

Hopefully November gives me (and everyone else!) clear skies. It's also a difficult time of year as there is yard work to be done to get ready for winter and I do not want to bring my telescope out after 3-4 hours of leaf clean up!

On to this months targets - as always, you are free to use whatever means you want to find this - the only goal is to get out and observe.

As always, info on Carbons can be found here.

AQ And - This one appears to have a range of 7.7 - 9.5, data can be found here. Observations show it towards the dimmer end of the range:

https://www.aavso.org/apps/webobs/resul ... tar=AQ+And

V Ari - It has a range, but it isn't much of a range: 8.2 - 8.9. Data is here.

There are no observations since January - I am not sure what that indicates - maybe it is a "boring" carbon?

https://www.aavso.org/apps/webobs/resul ... star=V+Ari


HD 16115- I suspect that this one is NOT a variable as it does not have any records in the AAVSO database. It is, however, on the Astro League Carbon Star list - so I am including it. According to SkySafari, the mag for this one is +8.14

The coordinates in RA/Dec:
RA - 2h 36m 7.04s
DEC - -09deg 21min 11.9sec

Good luck and clear skies to all!

Thank you Brett, I had no observing last month as well but hoping November will be better.

Cheers Brett.

1.5/3 last month, I'll see if I can get all three this month!

Forecast is clear tomorrow night.

Regards

Graeme

With one day to go to the great conjunction and cloud forecast for tomorrow I set up the telescope to try for a capture. I had a good view but the neighbour's greenhouse unfortunately blocked the view for the telescope!

So, a good opportunity to go for some carbon stars or what! I first set up at 16:00 so the December carbon star list were all still low or below the horizon. The November ones were however, good to go!

I found the stars in Stellarium then imported the coordinates into the NINA Framing Wizard. After a quick Plate Solve and Auto Focus I captured 10 x 10 second frames of AQ And, didn't bother guiding. Then repeated the process for V Ari and HD16115.

AQ And stacked 16 frames but V Ari only stacked 3 due to lack of stars detected and HD16115 didn't stack at all!

Pulled the .fit files into Gimp for Curves, Levels, Saturation and Colour Balance.

AQ And HIP 2181
V Ari HIP 10472
HD16115 HIP 12028

Sorry about the dust motes, I did do some flat frames but they're still uploading with some Lunar .ser files.

The carbon star colour really stands out in the AQ And image and HD16115 colour shows well against the adjacent white star HIP12055.

A good time was had by all! Thanks for the target suggestions Brett.

Regards

Graeme

That''s awesome Graeme - thanks for posting the images! 3 more than I have

It was fun! I was quite pleased how well Stellarium plays with NINA. Things are easy to find in Stellarium and I am still quite new to NINA. The plate solving is really quick and a lovely orange star appears on the screen smack in the centre!

We're rained out here till Christmas now! So I'll have to wait for the end of December or maybe January for your December challenge!

Regards

Graeme

Graeme1858 wrote: ↑Mon Dec 21, 2020 8:44 am

We're rained out here till Christmas now! So I'll have to wait for the end of December or maybe January for your December challenge!

Pretty much the same here - I don't think it is going to rain - but solid wall-to-wall clouds. Which also means - missing the conjunction tonight. That makes me sad.

If you're curious, I generate my list by forwarding SkySafari to Midnight location time on the 15th of the month, notate the constellations that are "high" in the sky at that point, and then build the list for the month from the Astro League 100 Carbon Star certificate list.

Obviously that means the constellations are local to me at that time (I am selfish that way ) so YMMV. I will start adding something similar to the above for the monthly post.

I'm hopeful of getting in a couple of sessions starting tonight and extending to Thursday, when rain is forecast again. Carbons are definitely on the list.

helicon wrote: ↑Tue Dec 29, 2020 3:48 pm I'm hopeful of getting in a couple of sessions starting tonight and extending to Thursday, when rain is forecast again. Carbons are definitely on the list.

Good Luck, Michael! I hope you are successful!