TheSkySearchers

Hi all and welcome back for another monthly installment of "Brett's Carbon Star Hunt".

Once again due to "reasons" November was a complete washout - December will likely be the same but I will keep going.

I hope everyone else had a good November, and will have a better December!

As always, info on Carbon Stars can be found here.

On to our targets for this month!

BL ORI - There seems to be some discrepancies between the magnitude range for this one. Sky Safari lists it as 7.9 - 9.7, but the AAVSO Database says 5.9 - 6.6. Which is correct? I do not know. What will you see?

AAVSO Data.

And Reported Visual Observations for the last year: https://www.aavso.org/apps/webobs/resul ... tar=BL+Ori


W CMA - Data and Observations


T CNC - Sky Safari says this is a double star, so it should be a fun target. The Carbon is dimmer than the previous two this month - ranges from 7.6 - 10.5. The secondary, according to SS sits at 254 degrees, and is separated by 139"

Data and Observations

Good luck and happy hunting!

Likewise for me November was a "thin" month. Just two sessions. Hopefully December will be better for you Brett.

helicon wrote: ↑Wed Dec 02, 2020 4:15 pm Likewise for me November was a "thin" month. Just two sessions. Hopefully December will be better for you Brett.

You too, Michael! Getting colder here, so....yeah.....

Well I now have 9 targets to look for
Bloody clouds and rain.

Thank you for the targets Brett

Looks fun. I will give them a try. Thanks for the suggestions, Brett!

If anyone makes any observations of these or any of the previous month's targets, please feel free to create a post in this sub-forum with your observations! That way, I can live vicariously through your observations, since I am not getting out myself!

Judging by my signature weather forecast, I might get a go at this on Saturday night!

I like the Carbon Star Hunt advert in your signature strategy!

Regards

Graeme

Graeme1858 wrote: ↑Thu Dec 10, 2020 1:31 pm Judging by my signature weather forecast, I might get a go at this on Saturday night!

I like the Carbon Star Hunt advert in your signature strategy!

Regards

Graeme

Thanks! I figured if people were looking for it, and found me they'd find it that way!

My weather looks like complete garbage for the near future. Tonight could be a possibility - but we have plans tonight, so it is basically out!

Someday. I hope it clears up the 21st though so I can get a peek at Saturn/Jupiter.

Good luck Graeme - I hope you are able to get out and check them out!

Woke up at 1 am last night, looked out, and saw clear, steady skies, full of lovely stars, so I decided to have a look for these carbon stars. I used the AT 80EDT, conveniently set up for grab and go.

Found BL Orionis and W Canis Majoris without a lot of difficulty. BL Orionis was easily located by visualizing a right triangle with Alhena and Alzirr in Gemini. W CMa a bit trickier. I made an imaginary triangle with Muliphein and Theta CMa. Could not locate the third challenge star. Maybe too dim for the little 80mm scope.

Anyway, it was a fun challenge and I thank you, Brett, for the targets.

Forecast was for clear sky with humidity rising so I thought it would be a good opportunity for a Carbon Star Hunt!

NINA found BL Ori first time and a quick plate solve centered it. I used a Sequence I've been working on that I've saved as templates for Sequence Start, Target and Sequence End. It loops 2 x L, 1 x R, 1 x G, 1 x B captures till the target is below 30° or we reach Astronomical Dawn. I recently found out I can use my Pegasus PBA as a Weather Data Source, which was a nice surprise! So I'm set up to receive a notification on my phone if the humidity rises above 95% or if the temperature drops below 2°C. And my Arduino Rain Sensor also notifies me if it rains. But just to get some data to process to avoid the possibility of forgetting how to process, I replaced the below 30° loop with a 3 iterations loop. I just captured 25 x 60 second subs.




Moving on to T Cnc I set the sequence to capture 3 instances of 2 x L, 1 x R, 1 x G, 1 x B at 180 seconds each. But the clouds filled the sky before the sequence finished. So this is 4 x L, 2 x R, 2 x G, 2 x B. I had to make some copies so that I had a minimum of 3 per channel for PI WBP to be able to stack.





The images are not brilliant, they need more data and I didn't bother doing any Flat Frames but I got some imaging practice in, I got some processing practice in and I tested my new Sequence Template. However, the targets are excellent! The colours of Carbon stars are stunning. Would have liked to have got the double W Cma but the weather and the altitude decided otherwise.

Cheers Brett

Graeme