Colourise my life

[JOC]

Hi Stu, Yes, I've got binoculars for bird watching 8X40, I guess they might do.  I have just wondered how I would know where to look, but I suppose that's where I need to be using Stellarium.  I have also got a RACI finder.  I'll give it a try.  Many thanks.

[N3ptune]

You can take a look at this tutorial I found on this forum. There is a PDF from mdstuart to learn star hopping, great document.

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/98318-star-hopping-how-to-find-anything-from-sgl6/#comment-971691

[JOC]

N3ptune, I read something like that and suddenly realise the work that has been done over hundreds of years to locate, identify and record the night sky - its certainly been a labour of love for everyone involved over time to produce such detailed maps and work out names and statistics for everything. 

[Stu]

10 hours ago, JOC said:

Hi Stu, Yes, I've got binoculars for bird watching 8X40, I guess they might do.  I have just wondered how I would know where to look, but I suppose that's where I need to be using Stellarium.  I have also got a RACI finder.  I'll give it a try.  Many thanks.

That's right. Use a star map of any sort to find out where to look, use the binos to find the right star, and to understand the direction to point the scope in, point the finder at it and pan around until you find it. A Telrad or similar is also useful as you can see the star you are looking for in the wider context whilst lining up the target circles with it.

Understanding the image scale is important and how that relates to the field of view in your finder and the Telrad circles. Example attached, the red circles are 1,2 and 4 degrees (Telrad) and the outer one is 5 degrees which might be a finder say.

Almach should be quite easy once you have located it with the naked eye and binos.

[JOC]

Hi Stu, what a great set of diagrams, thank you - I can't believe the 'giving' that you get from folks on public forums like SGL it all takes a certain amount of time, but it really does help us 'newbies' thank you all so much.

[rockystar]

6 minutes ago, JOC said:

Hi Stu, what a great set of diagrams, thank you - I can't believe the 'giving' that you get from folks on public forums like SGL it all takes a certain amount of time, but it really does help us 'newbies' thank you all so much.

we all go through the same challenges at the start, so are happy to give back when we can do.

give it 12 months and it'll be you offering these suggestions (or at least sharing the knowledge and resources that you've received), to next year's newbies

 

[Stu]

10 minutes ago, JOC said:

Hi Stu, what a great set of diagrams, thank you - I can't believe the 'giving' that you get from folks on public forums like SGL it all takes a certain amount of time, but it really does help us 'newbies' thank you all so much.

Thank you! But don't worry, we love doing it!

Taking this to the next step, I've added an 8 degree field of view which should be about right for your 8x40s.

If you find Alpheratz, the top left corner of the square of Pegasus, technically it is in Andromeda which never makes sense to me! From here, you can star hop with the binoculars out to Almach. The wider field allows you to keep a known star in the field whilst panning to the next one, like stepping stones to the target.

[JOC]

That's great Stu many thanks - you know what I'll being the next clear night!  In fact I only cleaned up my binoculars last week - they sit on my windowsill for bird-watching and can get really dusty, but I gave them a really good clean and they should now be ready to go for star-watching.

[neural]

+1 for carbon stars. Normally when people say that a star is red or (especially) blue they're not using the words in the same way that they'd use them in describing a pillar box or the sky - but carbon stars are genuinely coloured in a 'good grief look at that it's actually red' way. 

Apart from W Ori that's already been mentioned, my observing diary includes the following, observable at this time of year, with my descriptions at the time:

WZ Cas "deep rich orange-brown with flashes of red"
BL Ori "a deep coppery-orange" and "the colour of desert sand"
UU Aur "spectacular, splendid rich intense copper colour"
U Hya "a beautiful warm fiery ember red-orange"
VY UMa "red-orange" and "exactly the colour of Mars"

There's also RV Mon, X Cnc and V Hya, among others. 

In addition to which, they're fascinating astrophysically and usually variable to boot!