Unexpected highlight

[Littleguy80]

A short session tonight, only about an hour, spent mostly on the moon. The full moon is surprisingly, to me at least, one of the less interesting phases. I didn’t really appreciate how much the shadows added to the viewing experience until they weren’t there. There were shadows around the limb so that’s where I was drawn. The large crater, Nepter, next to Mare Marginis was the attention grabber. It’s central peak visible in profile. Messier and Messier A caught my eye further in. The two lines coming from Messier A standing out clearly. Back towards the Limb, Berosus, Hahn and Gauss sat together. I thought they looked a bit like Mickey Mouse together! I could see another large crater behind them but I wasn’t able to identify it. 

It was looking clear around Orion so I decided to have another crack at Hind’s Crimson Star. I’ve really struggled to find this star for some reason. On one occasion I thought I saw it but ultimately decided I must not have as my observations didn’t match up to the reports of others. Tonight my thought processes and approach was much clearer, more methodical. After a few minutes, I was in the right area and then it caught my eye...wow! I’ve never seen such a red star! It’s like a red traffic light. I don’t think I’ve ever been so impressed by a single star as I was with this. When I look at open clusters I like to try and pick out the different colour stars. The red stars tend to be more of an orange to my eye where as this was a proper ruby red  

The inevitable cloud rolled in and went back into the warmth feeling very satisfied to have finally seen a carbon star!

[Ben the Ignorant]

The Crimson Star is a variable, it shines between mag 5.5 and 11.5 while it changes its color. The brighter the more orange, the dimmer the redder; maybe this is why you had trouble identifying it?

[Hayduke27]

The carbon stars have been one of my favorites lately.  Most of my life I had no idea there were red stars in the sky.  i really enjoy observing them.  119 Tau has been one of my favorites.

[VNA]

Yes these carbon stars have a burnt orange color that is very arresting or intriguing against the black sky. Truly unique in many ways.

[Littleguy80]

1 hour ago, Ben the Ignorant said:

The Crimson Star is a variable, it shines between mag 5.5 and 11.5 while it changes its color. The brighter the more orange, the dimmer the redder; maybe this is why you had trouble identifying it?

You may well be right. I was certainly looking for a brighter star than what I saw last night 

[Littleguy80]

58 minutes ago, Hayduke27 said:

The carbon stars have been one of my favorites lately.  Most of my life I had no idea there were red stars in the sky.  i really enjoy observing them.  119 Tau has been one of my favorites.

I was aware of the red giant phase before I got into astronomy but I never really expected to see these colours. I guess I was just used to seeing white stars in the sky! I’ll definitely check out 119 Tau

[DHEB]

1 hour ago, Littleguy80 said:

You may well be right. I was certainly looking for a brighter star than what I saw last night 

R Lep is currently about mag 9, according to observations reported to AAVSO.

When in doubt you can always check the Light Curve Generator:

 

[MarsG76]

I'm glad you had more luck with seeing last night than me... This Crimson star peaked my interest.. I'll have to chase it up.

[Paz]

I got out last night and was lucky enough to get an hour in with the st120 before the clouds arrived. Spent lot of time just looking at the whole moon at 30x. With the aperture stopped down and a nd0.9 filter it was a great view and easy on the eye. Copernicus and Kepler looked like eggs had been thrown at the moon and splattered. I did a bit of ray-spotting, the best being the striking white ray cutting across Mare Serenitatis that I understand originates from Tycho.

As you say the terminator as just starting to move in from the leading limb and Neper was the main objective to catch my eye.

Also did a bit of doubles in Gemini and Orion.

Then tried measuring the moon with my 12.5mm microguide eyepiece, I made it 5.85mm across and will try to do the maths tonight as to how that translates into working out roughly the distance to the moon. Cloud rolled in before I could make a calibration measurement on a pair of stars.

[Littleguy80]

8 minutes ago, Paz said:

I got out last night and was lucky enough to get an hour in with the st120 before the clouds arrived. Spent lot of time just looking at the whole moon at 30x. With the aperture stopped down and a nd0.9 filter it was a great view and easy on the eye. Copernicus and Kepler looked like eggs had been thrown at the moon and splattered. I did a bit of ray-spotting, the best being the striking white ray cutting across Mare Serenitatis that I understand originates from Tycho.

As you say the terminator as just starting to move in from the leading limb and Neper was the main objective to catch my eye.

Also did a bit of doubles in Gemini and Orion.

Then tried measuring the moon with my 12.5mm microguide eyepiece, I made it 5.85mm across and will try to do the maths tonight as to how that translates into working out roughly the distance to the moon. Cloud rolled in before I could make a calibration measurement on a pair of stars.

Sounds like a great hour, Paz! I’ve not heard of a microguide eyepiece before. Would definitely be interested to hear how that works  

[Stu]

Great stuff! The terminator certainly adds a lot of interest but I still find, as you did, there is always something interesting to see. Seems like we all picked up on Neper which was new to me. I think I'm right in saying the crater you couldn't ID is Riemann. I could just see the rim of it floating off the limb a little. Here is my picture of it, plus the map with label. Is this the one? Sorry about the different orientations!

Hind's Crimson star is amazing isn't it? I've seen it before but spotted it again recently and couldn't believe just how red it is!

Ben's point is a good one, I hadn't realized how much it varies in brightness, currently mag 8 its period is 427 days so I guess it depend when you last tried it?

[Littleguy80]

16 minutes ago, Stu said:

Great stuff! The terminator certainly adds a lot of interest but I still find, as you did, there is always something interesting to see. Seems like we all picked up on Neper which was new to me. I think I'm right in saying the crater you couldn't ID is Riemann. I could just see the rim of it floating off the limb a little. Here is my picture of it, plus the map with label. Is this the one? Sorry about the different orientations!

Hind's Crimson star is amazing isn't it? I've seen it before but spotted it again recently and couldn't believe just how red it is!

Ben's point is a good one, I hadn't realized how much it varies in brightness, currently mag 8 its period is 427 days so I guess it depend when you last tried it?

Yes, that was the one! I was looking at a paper atlas. Riemann didn’t look quite big enough on that. 

It looks spot on with the virtual atlas though  

It was probably a couple of months ago when I first thought I saw Hind’s Crimson star. The star was more of an orange so I’m sure I just misidentified it. There was no mistaking it last night though!

[laudropb]

Another nice report Neil. That’s what I love about the Moon. There is always something to see no matter what the phase is. Had an hour or so  last night  seeing much the same as you did. Just started to look for some doubles when the clouds rolled in. Still had a nice, if somewhat short session with the ED 120.