Tycho 3C10 Cassiopeia some questions

[proflight2000]

Has anyone ever taken any images of the planetry nebula Tycho 3C10 in Cassiopeia, I would be interested in getting some general information on this area of the sky. Secondly, with a goto handset (skywatcher synscan) does anyone know if the above Tycho is within the handsets data?

Thanks all

[Cloudwatcher]

The Tycho catalog is not included on the Synscan handset but you can enter the RA & Dec coordinates in the User Defined facility and it should 'take you there'.

Cheers

CW

[proflight2000]

Thanks CW, The only problem I have with that is that it does not seem to allow the full RA and DEC to be added, i.e the RA and DEC are 0h 25, 737 and 64 11, 187 when i try to input the RA and DEC into the Synscan it only wants 0h 25, 7 then 64 11, these coordinates then point it towards NGC133 and around a degree off at that. Seems the last 3 digits do make a lot of difference unless I am missing something.

[Cloudwatcher]

The coordinates you quote appear to be 'Starry Night' ones and I don't think Synscan needs the extra decimal places.

Try 25.18 RA,+64.09 Dec. using a wide FOV eyepiece. I have very limited knowledge of this object I'm afraid, other than it might be the site of a super nova remnant seen by Tycho in the sixteenth century. I don't even know it's magnitude. I assume you have checked and that it should be bright enough to be visible in an 8" Newt.

Cassiopeia is a 'rich hunting ground' try a free sweep of the area and you will not be disappointed. I like 'doubles' and Achrid (Eta Cass') is worth a visit. The main star @ mag 3.5 is yellow and the secondary red.

Sorry I could not be of more help.

Cheers

CW

[proflight2000]

ahh thats great, thanks cw

[barkis]

PF.

I May be way off base here, but the only reference to an object I can find is of a supernova in 1572, which was witnessed by Tycho Brahe.

When seen by Tycho, the magnitude was brighter than Jupiter. He watched it's light fade, and from his descriptions, a light curve was plotted, which saw it fade from m-4 down to +14 in 600 days. No star can be found there, although it bore the name Tycho's Star. Some wispy remnants have been reported by larger observatories though.

Tycho's instruments (No Telescope), were good enough to be accurate to 30" and the coordinates precessed to 1950 showed the position to be RA 0h 22' 00.2 s Dec.+63 52' 12"

As I said, probably nothing to do with what you are looking for.

Ron.

[Cloudwatcher]

Hi Ron, what you say about Tycho's Star sound familiar and agrees with the little I was able to provide. It does seem that it is now a low visibility object and may be difficult to find. Would it be worth the effort I wonder?

CW

[barkis]

Well CW, there is no doubting Tycho himself got the best view, and no telescope required. just as well, they didn't exist.

Depends on PF's desire to satisfy his need to know, but perhaps what he is referring to is entirely different to the Supernova our friend with nose of wax studied.

I dont recall an object classified as Tycho 3C10 in Cassiopeia. but Proflight has got that info from somewhere, and I think I must be the odd one out here. My recall is now somewhat defunct, due to a condition known as senility, and when I try to force my grey matter into motion, it hurts like hell.

I remember some years ago, I did talk at our local Astro Club, on our friend Tycho, covering most of his active life, and work he did from his observatory at Hven. Some of what he accomplished was a great help to Kepler and his laws of planetary motion.

I remember his supernova episode, and what he wrote about that event. It had a great bearing on his study of the stars.

Although he did not have any optical aid, his observatory was equipped with some very sophisticated equipment.

One thing I did notice though, when I finished the talk, most of the group had nodded off. And just like Tycho's star, you would never know I'd been there.

Ron.

[proflight2000]

LOL a good sentiment aired there, yes it did relate to an issue in the 1600s, I am just interested in finding the spot to be honest. If you go into starry night and bring up CAPH, look for kappa cassiopeia and look north of it to the tycho. Make sure you press Labels/ view all labels. As I said it is more out of interest, starry night shows an image and of course with my level of non understanding of the bigger picture I am taking it on board that there is something to see, I may be totally of track here but still interesting and I remember something being said a while ago on TV about it. Hope this clears it up.

[Astroman]

The position you give is for Tycho's Supernova, but you won't see anything in visible light. You need an X-ray telescope to find it.

Here's Chandra's view:

http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2005/tycho/

[barkis]

Thanks for that Steve, I have never seen that, and I wish it had been available at the time I could have done with it.

Thank goodness for the eyes of XRay telescopes. I would have thought that with all those tremendous energies released, their would be a visible tell tale bow shock somewhere. Not being an officionado of stellar explosions, I will happily be educated by someone who does.

There were reports of veil like wisps visible in large Ob. instruments, but I have nothing to support those reports.

Ron.

[Astroman]

I did a couple searches of DSS red and blue images and found nothing at the coordinates. The star may be extended, but it's tough to tell.

The energies released in a SN are very high. The light from the star exploding diminish after weeks to months to years, depending on the sensitivity of your equipment. If Tycho Brahe had a telescope, he'd have detected it for a month or two after he'd lost it visually. In fact, it's a testament to his observational skills that he saw it as long as he did. The explosion continues in higher energy bands and emits as the shockwave slams into interstellar material at extremely high velocities. It's not so much the actual material from the star that exploded, but the shocked matter that was already there being affected. I hope that's clear.

[Cloudwatcher]

Well PF, looks like you will have to contact FLO and order up the new Skywatcher X-Ray scope if you wish to find your target.

The Cassiopeia region is still a good visual site so enjoy.

CW

[proflight2000]

lol i just asked the wife if she had a few million quid for me to get one, but i think steve would enjoy a 10 per cent discount on that one. maybe a baby chandra steve.