Finding a particular star

[steve walsh]

Hi,a friend of mine has asked me if i can take a picture of a particular star,its one of those you buy and name it.I know it will be a tiny star with loads of other stars around it but if i can get the right area so the star will be in the frame at least.The coordinates are 10:49:57.773 +70:08:43.40 ,not sure how to find it using these but if there is any way of using Stellarium or something similar i would be very grateful for any help.

[Tinker1947]

Your can input the coordinates into Stellarium this should show were the star is....show a 17.95 Mag star, your not going to see that by eye....your type coordinates are different to the ones on the piece of paper only one digit, but that's important...

Press F3 the click Position and input your numbers...

[acey]

I got this image by entering the co-ordinates into the CDS portal

http://cdsportal.u-strasbg.fr/#10:49:57.773%20+70:08:43.40

The link to Simbad gives the officially recognised names

http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim-coo?Coord=10+49+57.773+%2B70+08+43.40&Radius=2&Radius.unit=arcmin

The first name given for it is BD+70 628 (a name assigned in the 19th century for a catalogue called the Bonner Durchmusterung). The names are given as:

BD+70 628 AG+70 402 GSC 04388-01750 2MASS J10495762+7008423 PPM 7768 SAO 7213 TYC 4388-1750-1

Obviously "Alice", your friend's name, isn't going to be included. Those "buy a star" things are novelties, and the only thing you actually buy is a certificate, and entry into some entrepreneur's register of customers.

Simbad gives the star's V-magnitude as 10.18 so it will be visible in a small telescope if you use a map to find it.

Edit: I had a quick look at my star atlas. The star itself isn't marked (my atlas only plots down to mag 8.5) but from the position I can see that the star is in Ursa Major. Find the last two stars of the Plough (at the plough end, not the handle end, i.e. the stars alpha and beta, also known as Dubhe and Merak). Draw a line up through them, going towards Polaris, but only about the same distance as the two plough stars themselves (or more like 1.5 times that distance). You'll then be pretty close. Binoculars will show lots of stars. It's one of them. It's circumpolar, i.e. can be seen from UK on any night of the year.

[steve walsh]

Thanks for all your help,i will try and image that area of the sky the next clear night we get.

         

[steve walsh]

Im having trouble with tellurium,is there a NGC or Messier close to it?

[acey]

Go to the Simbad link I gave, choose search radius, and it will return all objects within that radius from the star. Nearest NGC is NGC 3364, which is 2.3 degrees from the star. Its details:

http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim-id?Ident=%40409422&Name=NGC%20%203364&submit=submit

Stellarium has its uses, but the links from the CDS Portal (Simbad, Vizier, Aladin etc) are far more powerful (and are what professional astronomers use).

[steve walsh]

Thanks again acey,i t has finally sunk in lol,your a star