Brett's Carbon Star Hunt - November 2020

Brett's Monthly Carbon Star Hunt Challenge

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KingNothing13 United States of America
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Brett's Carbon Star Hunt - November 2020

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Post by KingNothing13 »


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? :lol:

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!
-- Brett

Scope: Apertura AD10 with Nexus II with 8192/716000 Step Encoders
EPs: ES 82* 18mm, 11mm, 6.7mm; GSO 30mm
Celestron SkyMaster 15x70 Binoculars
List Counts: Messier: 75; Herschel 400: 30; Caldwell: 12; AL Carbon Star List: 16
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Re: Brett's Carbon Star Hunt - November 2020

#2

Post by Lady Fraktor »


Thank you Brett, I had no observing last month as well but hoping November will be better.
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Re: Brett's Carbon Star Hunt - November 2020

#3

Post by Graeme1858 »


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
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Celestron 9.25 f10 SCT, f6.3FR, CGX mount.
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ZWO EFW, ZWO OAG, ASI220MM Mini.
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Re: Brett's Carbon Star Hunt - November 2020

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Post by Graeme1858 »


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
AQ And HIP 2181 Nov01.jpg
V Ari HIP 10472
V Ari HIP 10472 Nov02.jpg
HD16115 HIP 12028
HD16115 HIP 12028 Nov03.jpg

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
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Celestron 9.25 f10 SCT, f6.3FR, CGX mount.
ASI1600MM Pro, ASI294MC Pro, ASI224MC
ZWO EFW, ZWO OAG, ASI220MM Mini.
APM 11x70 ED APO Binoculars.

https://www.averywayobservatory.co.uk/
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Re: Brett's Carbon Star Hunt - November 2020

#5

Post by KingNothing13 »


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

Scope: Apertura AD10 with Nexus II with 8192/716000 Step Encoders
EPs: ES 82* 18mm, 11mm, 6.7mm; GSO 30mm
Celestron SkyMaster 15x70 Binoculars
List Counts: Messier: 75; Herschel 400: 30; Caldwell: 12; AL Carbon Star List: 16
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Re: Brett's Carbon Star Hunt - November 2020

#6

Post by Graeme1858 »


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
______________________________________________
Celestron 9.25 f10 SCT, f6.3FR, CGX mount.
ASI1600MM Pro, ASI294MC Pro, ASI224MC
ZWO EFW, ZWO OAG, ASI220MM Mini.
APM 11x70 ED APO Binoculars.

https://www.averywayobservatory.co.uk/
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Re: Brett's Carbon Star Hunt - November 2020

#7

Post by KingNothing13 »


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 :lol:) so YMMV. I will start adding something similar to the above for the monthly post.
-- Brett

Scope: Apertura AD10 with Nexus II with 8192/716000 Step Encoders
EPs: ES 82* 18mm, 11mm, 6.7mm; GSO 30mm
Celestron SkyMaster 15x70 Binoculars
List Counts: Messier: 75; Herschel 400: 30; Caldwell: 12; AL Carbon Star List: 16
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Re: Brett's Carbon Star Hunt - November 2020

#8

Post by helicon »


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.
-Michael
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Re: Brett's Carbon Star Hunt - November 2020

#9

Post by KingNothing13 »


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!
-- Brett

Scope: Apertura AD10 with Nexus II with 8192/716000 Step Encoders
EPs: ES 82* 18mm, 11mm, 6.7mm; GSO 30mm
Celestron SkyMaster 15x70 Binoculars
List Counts: Messier: 75; Herschel 400: 30; Caldwell: 12; AL Carbon Star List: 16
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