Colourise my life

[JOC]

I know my telescope is not huge, huge, but reading around on the web it seems that 8" is sufficient light gathering for some naturally coloured objects to show their true colours.  I wondered if anyone had a few ideas of coloured obects I could try for.  I've read about Alberio (sp?) one orange and one blue double star, but my goto sends the telescope nearly horizontal and I can't peer over the garden hedge to see it, so I don't suppose I will ever get to see it.  Are there any more coloured things up there tbat I might be able to resolve the colours of with my 8" Dob please .

[rockystar]

try Almach in Andromeda, similar to albireo, but a bit closer together. Cygnus is a bit low this time of year

 

[SilverAstro]

31 minutes ago, JOC said:

my goto sends the telescope nearly horizontal and I can't peer over the garden hedge to see it, so I don't suppose I will ever get to see it.

Yes you will but you will have to wait a few months yet. In the late summer it will begin rising in the East and will be nice and high in the sky through autumn. Catch it then, because the bad news is that in late autumn through early winter it rises very high through overhead which makes it   difficult    less easy to track with a Dob.

Have you got a planetarium program like eg. Stellarium yet ?

 

[Stu]

How about the Blue Snowball NGC7662 and the Blinking Planetary NGC6826?

The latter you will have to wait a little while for but as I recall it can give a nice greenish tiny to it.

Both Almach and Alberio are very nice, Alberio nicely placed later in the year.

M42 can show a greenish hue to it under the right conditions, I sometimes find that if you have a little local glare, your colour sensitive cones are triggered and you pick up the green. I've seen it more easily in a 12" dob but definitely there in a 4" frac.

[Davey-T]

While you're waiting for Alberio have a try for the so called "Winter Alberio" in Canis Major 145CMa HIP35210 said to resemble Alberio.

Dave

[N3ptune]

In Draco the Cat's eye nebula NGC6543 is really green, like a green laser pointer (but really small also) The Blue Snowball has mentioned by Stu has a nice bluish color from my 8 inches telescope.  For the stars you will see the colors of  kelvin scale.

[Dave In Vermont]

If you have a desire to bag some double-star sytems - and triple, quadruple, all-flavoured, etc.- Here's a great bunch of others, too:

https://bestdoubles.wordpress.com/

Like everything else I fire-off, absolutely FREE.

A fellow fan -

Dave

 

Have a go on this image of Albireo -

 

<WOOF!>

 

[rockystar]

something I picked up from another member  Coloured Stars.pdf

[JOC]

Many thanks folks, I'm glad you didn't mind me asking.  I have a book that I'm taking out with me so I'll note down all these suggestions so I have them to hand.  The nebulas at the moment I haven't found time for, but the stars are an easier find as I get used to my kit.  I'll certainly try all these targets, and have a look at those lists.  A basic star is a so-what pinpoint of light, but these coloured and multiple stars have a far greater interest thing for me.  I found Castor again last night (no clouds - yay, extremely cold - frozen, but no dew - hurray, all the water vapour was frozen - conditions looked good no 'twinkling'), with the standard 10mm Plossl that came with the telescope (which seems a perfectly adequate little eyepiece to me).  Castor from a single spot of light at 26mm resolves, with the 10mm, into perfectly separated dots of light that even appear to have crisp edges - if dots can have edges, i.e. they seem more than pinpoints of light.  It's not very scientific, but they are very 'pretty' to see.  I am looking forward to trying those you've pointed me at.  Thank-you

[ronin]

A link I had has gone but as I saved a copy you can try this - it may be the same as the attachment byt rockystar, as numberically about the same but the 2 look different at least superficially.

Doubles32SAO.doc

The original came from the Delaware Astro group but their site has changed and I cannot supply the original link, comes up 404.

There are about 25 doubles, in 3 different orderings, RA, Constellation and Primary:Secondary seperation. I added the SAO references, everything else was the Delaware originator.

There is this http://users.compaqnet.be/doublestars/

Which I seem to think Michael posted as a table/document somewhere. 200 in this so bit more work.

Concerning Albireo, get outside at about 6:00. I know Cygnus is low but so is Lyra and last night drving home I was looking at a bright star in the North at reasonable height, turned out it was Vega. In front of me was Venus fairly high up. But both these are often quoted as "too low", being honest I have said the same to people.

Thinking that at 6:00 Albireo may be just high enough to view. Not great maybe but it might creep into view.

[Floater]

Hey, folks. There's an awful lot of effort goes into changing this star's common name ... but it's still Albireo. ??

The old rule 'i before e' might help? Or might not. ??

[Davey-T]

12 minutes ago, Floater said:

Hey, folks. There's an awful lot of effort goes into changing this star's common name ... but it's still Albireo. ??

The old rule 'i before e' might help? Or might not. ??

I blame Stu, I just copied his spelling 

Dave

[SilverAstro]

25 minutes ago, Floater said:

Hey, folks. There's an awful lot of effort goes into changing this star's common name ... but it's still Albireo. ??

The old rule 'i before e' might help? Or might not. ??

Not !

would that be the received wisdom of science ?

No effort needed at all, believe me, - you dont even have to be a bit dyslexic to get that one wrong

[JOC]

If I post using my PC I do normally check spellings in a different window and cut and paste them in if I have them wrong.  If I have a name wrong in any posting it's a sure sign I posted from my 'phone where it is not as easy to check or to type, or where the auto-complete has wrongly kicked in and I haven't noticed.  Since the 'phone postings are usually when I am nearly asleep at night this probably doesn't help. LOL

[Astro Imp]

If you enjoyed Castor there are loads of doubles/multiple stars in Orion, try sigma Orionis for starters. 

[Nyctimene]

Don t forget the so-called carbon stars, shining in deep yellow, orange and red colours. The Pocket Sky Atlas lists 55 of them, marked by the letter "c" in the maps. Well known is Herschels Garnet Star (mu Cephei) in the circumpolar constellation Cepheus. To me, the finest carbon star is R Leporis

(Hinds Crimson Star); shining in vivid red, and at the moment still easy to reach in Lepus just below Orion. Give it a try!

There are also some listings of carbon stars on the net. So, extend your coloured astro life to the red side and enjoy!

Stephan

 

 

[ronin]

Concerning the spelling - this was covered a few years ago, someone was fed up of it - all I recall was it is a like "biro" the common everyday pens we use. Ought to give Almaak a go, I have seen 3 different offerings for that. All of which are "correct". Beta Cygnus seems a bit too formal.

[rockystar]

2 hours ago, ronin said:

Ought to give Almaak a go, I have seen 3 different offerings for that

Wikipedia as 5 alternate spellings!

pretty sure there is a carbon star in Orion too, and it didn't look too hard to find.

http://stars.astro.illinois.edu/sow/wori.html

 

[Stu]

17 hours ago, JOC said:

I know my telescope is not huge, huge, but reading around on the web it seems that 8" is sufficient light gathering for some naturally coloured objects to show their true colours.  I wondered if anyone had a few ideas of coloured obects I could try for.  I've read about Alberio (sp?) one orange and one blue double star, but my goto sends the telescope nearly horizontal and I can't peer over the garden hedge to see it, so I don't suppose I will ever get to see it.  Are there any more coloured things up there tbat I might be able to resolve the colours of with my 8" Dob please .

I was forgetting some obvious ones. There is of course the lovely contrast between the orange of Betelgeuse and the white (almost blue white??) of Rigel.

Neptune is a deep blue colour, whilst I see Uranus as a greyish green. Mars is quite orange with the naked eye, and shows nice colour through the scope, better when at a good opposition.

Jupiter itself does show subtle colours, salmon pinks, the GRS can appear a kind of brick red colour depending upon its mood each apparition, sometimes it is paler. The festoons coming off the equatorial belts can appear a pale blue colour. Aperture certainly helps see more colour. In the Tak colour on Jupiter is subtle, in the C925 it is much more obvious.

[ollypenrice]

1 hour ago, rockystar said:

Wikipedia as 5 alternate spellings!

pretty sure there is a carbon star in Orion too, and it didn't look too hard to find.

http://stars.astro.illinois.edu/sow/wori.html

 

Nooooo, it has five alternative spellings!   That's the American 'alternate' you're using. Shudder! Great point about carbon stars. They are worth looking up and are truly red rather than orange.

While taking an astronomy course with UCLAN I was given a list of stars and asked to estimate their colour in order from the hot blue end to the 'cooler' red end, simply naked eye. It proved to be perfectly possible, much to my surprise. So I'd get to the darkest site possible, get well adapted, and study star colour naked eye. 

Olly

[rockystar]

2 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

Nooooo, it has five alternative spellings

:hangs_head_in_shame:

[Floater]

This is a good thread ... Pedantry, colour, erudition, the blame game (come in Dave and/or Stu ?) and the globalisation of American English.

Who could want for more?

p.s. It's still Albireo, so there! ??

p.p.s. Sorry for treading all over your thread, JOC. Forgive me, please. Just fun. ?

 

[JOC]

Floater - please play if it makes you feel good, so many folks on here are generous with their advice so it feels good to give something back, even if it is only fun!

So I tried for Almach tonight - I may not have got the calibration spot on, but I was finding most things I already knew about the locations of, but I didn't have any luck finding her (it?) the telescope had it in the goto inventory and positioned itself (I would assume) at the very least close to it, but what I find even with the magnified finderscope is that when you look through something that is magnified that I am suddenly confronted with dozens more stars in the sky than I am expecting to see and I couldn't find a particularly bright one that I assumed would indicate a double star.  I also tried NGC7662, but if I recall that was sort of North West and at the time I looked low in the sky and although I'm reasonably dark I get a certain amount of light pollution to the NorthWest - again I couldn't find it.  Neptune was also similarly missing I think for the same reason.  My best directions are to the South and South East - which are largely out over low population areas and then out into the North Sea.   However, I shan't give up and will have another go another night. 

[Stu]

Do you have a pair of binoculars? It is often easier to pick out your target with these first then it helps you identify things in your finder. If you have a RACI finder then the views will match orientation which makes life easier. Almach should be fairly obvious once you get it in the field of view of the finder.

[Floater]

41 minutes ago, JOC said:

... but what I find even with the magnified finderscope is that when you look through something that is magnified that I am suddenly confronted with dozens more stars in the sky than I am expecting to see ...  However, I shan't give up and will have another go another night. 

Thanks for forgiving me for trampling about on the thread. (The correct spelling of Albireo is a subject I've railed about before. No apology.)

But, on topic, I couldn't agree more. I need my RACI to ensure I don't attempt contortions that I would regret - even if achieved! Nevertheless, I have difficulty matching the views and orientation, the same as you. For example, Hyades unaided eye - gotcha. Through red dot finder - there you are. Through RACI finder - Oh! Through Dob - Eh?

I think (hope) that the more experience I get the easier it will become.

Meantime, Albireo(?) was my first double ... and I revisit often, when skies allow.

Have fun.