Tracking down a star

[Blackheart]

Hi all

I need a little help in tracking down a particular star. Someone I know lost a child some time ago and as a gesture of remembrance some friends of hers 'bought' her a star. I have my own views on the merits of this kind of thing but I did say I would try to find the star and maybe let her view it through my scope.

However, it seems the star in question might be quite faint. I do not have a name or number for this star. All I have are its celestial co-ordinates. These are given as:

Andromeda

RA 2H 30m 59s

D 48 degrees 24'

I have look on Stellarium but can't find anything at these specific coords.

I wonder if anyone has access to a more detailed star map and might be able to locate the star in question. If so then I could take a look through my 12" dob and see if the star is visible.

If anyone could help out that would be great.

Clear skies to you all

Blackheart

[Hypernova]

A Simbad search brings up a magnitude 10.45 star at those coordinates, the catalogue name is "TYC 3299-970-1" in Andromeda, it can be found easily on Wikisky and the area can be found with a little hunting on Stellarium, you are right in saying that there is no star at those coordinates on there but it might possibly be included in one of the extra downloadable star packs. The star you are looking for is just over 2 degrees WSW of Theta Per, just north of a reasonably bright double star that is visible on Stellarium, use the angle measure plugin and equatorial grid to find it

WIKISKY.ORG (just enter the star name into the search box)

CDS Portal

[Blackheart]

That's brilliant Hypernova!

thanks for that

BH

[661-pete]

If you don't mind me coming up with a slight amendment...

I've had a look on CdC and have identified stars closer than the above, but the data given is not precise enough, because we need to know to what epoch the RA and dec figures apply.

If they're J2000 figures (most likely), then the closest star I've got is

3UC 277-034813 mag.13.15 which is at:

(J2000) 2h30m59.26s +48°24'19"0

If on the other hand the RA and dec apply to the present time (less likely), then the closest match is:

3UC 277-034572 mag. 14.53 at:

(J2011) 2h30m59.57s +48°23'53"3

Both the above are references from USNO catalogue.

I'll do a screen grab from CdC in a mo.

[661-pete]

Screenshot from CdC, if it's any help.

The star marked with a red arrow is my 'choice': 3UC-277-034813.

The star marked with green lines is Hypernova's suggestion: TYC 3299-970.

Take your pick!

Note: this grab shows some very faint stars, down to mag. 17. Probably beyond the range of your Dob. And the red circle shows the 5' eyepiece FOV. Any lower magnification, CdC doesn't show up the faint stars at all.