Hi all
A wonderful day turned into a wonderful night, weather wise. It was so warm last night that I was observing wearing shorts and a t-shirt, this is the middle of September, after all.
I decided to hunt down some carbon stars, I started at 9.00 and wrapped it up at midnight, the Monday morning alarm would not be far off.
I started off in Lyra using the 120mm f/5 refractror.
T Lyr: Dark orange in colour, it sits close to Vega, making it an easy find. Looked to be 8th mag.
HK Lyr: I saw this in the same low power field, 20X as T Lyr. It is of similar magnitude, to me this looked a brighter shade of orange.
U Lyr: This was very difficult to see, I estimated it to be 11th mag. The colour was hard to make out, at 125X I thought I could see a dull orange colour.
I next moved into the next door neighbour, Cygnus.
AW Cyg: Bright orange in colour, it makes a nice double with a nearby white star of similar magnitude, about 7.5.
TT Cyg: Similar to AW in colour and magnitude, this sits in a busy star field.
AX Cyg: Orange in colour, 8.5 mag. Makes a nice triangle with a pair of white stars.
SV Cyg: Very dark orange, almost red, sits with a close white star near the star Omicron 2 Cygni.
RY Cyg: A faint orange star in a crowded star field, this 10th mag. star forms an isosceles with a pair of similar mag. stars
RS Cyg: Bright orange, sitting close to Sadr, this is in a very crowded field, the colour makes it pop out from its neighbours.
U Cyg: Dull orange 7th mag. star, a 6th mag. white stars is a close companion. Located close to Omicron 2 Cygni.
V Cyg: The standout star of the night. This star is a beautiful shade of deepest red, a true drop of blood on a black cloth. This is what carbon stars are supposed to be.
CY Cyg: Sitting close to Deneb, this bright orange carbon star glows at 8th mag.
V460 Cyg: Obvious, even at lower magnitudes, this bright orange 6th mag. star pops out from its white neighbours.
RV Cyg: Dull orange 7th mag. star that sits in a pretty field of stars close to 79 Cygni.
I see many carbon stars as orange, and I was wondering if this had something to do with the way I perceive colour or as a consequence of using a fast refractor. Looking online, I was relieved to read that carbon stars range from pumpkin orange to deep red. Thankfully, that was solved.
14 in one night, not bad.
Paul
Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better programs, and the universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the universe is winning.
Rich Cook
