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There may already be a similiar thread on this forum but I haven't found it yet, so apologies if I repeat any questions for you resident astronomers.

I am not into Astronomy at all, it just doesn't do it for me, if you catch my drift, BUT I do have a question if I may.

I recently paid some poxy online company a few quid to 'name' a star. ( yes I know it's a rip off and it's not even visible to the naked eye etc etc etc) but it's my fiance's 30th birthday and, what with me being an old romantic, and her being a sucker for the romantic gestures I went and forked out a small bundle to name a star after her. Now, all I got for my money is a pile of tacky paraphernalia on star-gazing, a framed 'certificate' and the co-ordinates of 'my' star.

Now here's my question.........

Is there any kind of telescope I could buy/hire/borrow etc that I could just punch in the co-ordinates given to me and lo and behold there's my star ? Is it that easy ? Is there anything, dumb enough for an astronomy-idiot like myself to use, but advanced enough to just go straight for the star I want to see ?

I need help. Please, if anyone responds, keep answers jargon-free because, well, I'm a newbie and I need someone to just say "Go do this" or "Go here" or "Buy this telescope, it'll do the hard work for you".............

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Hi, welcome to SGL and congratulations on your upcoming marriage. ;) Yes you're right, those 'name a star' businesses are a rip off, but it's the idea that counts. :p

There are plenty of scopes that can do exactly what you say. But to be perfectly honest, you might not be too keen on buying one if you refer to the star-naming certificate as costing "a small bundle".

That being said... if you let us know the coordinates, we can easily find out what the magnitude of the star is and where it's located. Hopefully it's visible from your location and is bright enough to be seen without too large of a telescope (the dimmer the star is, the larger the scope that's needed to see it).

If you'd rather keep things private, please feel free to PM me with the co-ordinates and i'll be happy to look up the star and give you more information about it. ;)

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You might consider finding an astronomy club nearby. Ask them if they have a public outreach or some such thing. If so, just bring the coordinates to their session. I'm sure someone there will have a comuterised setup with which they can enter the coordianates and locate the star.

Mind you, when you look into the eyepiece, you're going to see a LOT of stars. In fact, if you've never looked through a scope, you'll be stunned at the number of stars you'll see. Picking your particular star out will be very difficult. Were it me you were asking, I'd put in a reticle eyepiece and slew to it that way. These eyepieces are usually fairly high magnification, so it shrinks the size of the star field a bit. It's what I use when I do star alignments.

Anyway, good luck in your quest...and you are a hopeless romantic. ;) I got my wife flowers and took her to a nice restaurant.

David

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Someone asked the same question last year and if I recall correctly it turned out to be a mag 6 star I think. If it's the same star and is in a barren part of the sky maybe a set of binoculars would find it, but then being not into astronomy you won't be able to find it.

Computer go-to scopes cost alot of money. As Carol said let us know the co-ords and we will try and find it for you.

I just had a thought....

Look it up on Stellarium..

It's a freeware planetarium. Just google it to find the link.

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Thank you all for your help. I will post all the co-ordinates as soon as i get them and would appreicate any info you can give me on the star itself (where it is, what kind of star it is (I assume there are different kinds)) how I can get to see it from where I am (I presume it's only visible in certain parts of the globe at certain times of the year) etc etc.

Incidentally, having been a member/poster on a lot of differing forums over the years, I'd like to say that the response here has been very welcoming. I may be a complete dunce astronomy-wise but I may just hang around for a while if that's alright with you locals. I will have nothing to bring to ANY of your conversations but having scrolled through a few threads here, I'd quite like to lurk around and read a bit more.

Thanks again folks.

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Feel free to look around. We even have the Lounge section for non astronomical subjects if you ever want to post about anything else. The imaging section is pretty nice too as it allows you to see objects in a way the human eye can't, even with professional telescopes and you can do it in the comfort of your home.

Besides who knows, maybe after some time here we'll persuade you to stay up till ridiculous hours in the garden, under freezing temperatures, wearing an eyepatch and peaking through your brand new scope. ;)

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Besides who knows, maybe after some time here we'll persuade you to stay up till ridiculous hours in the garden, under freezing temperatures, wearing an eyepatch and peaking through your brand new scope. ;)

hehehe

I read somewhere on here about the eyepatch thing that you lot wear. Something about going indoorsin the dead of night ? You are aware of just how mental that sounds aren't you ? ;)

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hehehe

I read somewhere on here about the eyepatch thing that you lot wear. Something about going indoorsin the dead of night ? You are aware of just how mental that sounds aren't you ? ;)

Yeah we are. That's part of the fun :p

But the eyepatch is mostly so you can keep the other eye open while observing. If you close the left eye, while observing with the right one, the right eye will be squinting a bit and that degrades the image quality and detail you can actually see.

Some of the stuff we look at are just tiny faint fuzzies. Usually light that left the object before humans ware walking the Earth so anything that may help, including an eyepatch, is welcome. ;)

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Yeah we are. That's part of the fun ;)

But the eyepatch is mostly so you can keep the other eye open while observing. If you close the left eye, while observing with the right one, the right eye will be squinting a bit and that degrades the image quality and detail you can actually see.

Some of the stuff we look at are just tiny faint fuzzies. Usually light that left the object before humans ware walking the Earth so anything that may help, including an eyepatch, is welcome. ;)

Is that bit true ?

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Absolutely 100% fact. Some of the stuff we see is many many light years away, take the Andromeda galaxy, that is approx 2,500,000 light years away, a light year is the distance that light would travel in one year, which is roughly 10 trillion kilometres, ie 10 /13 so, 2,500,000 x 10 trillion killometres is, well, a lot, but the light from andromeda we see on earth, started it's journey from andromeda 2.5 million years ago.

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Going back even further....

M90 a galaxy in Virgo is 65 million light years away. So the light that that left there did so when dinosaurs were dying out due to a so called meteroite hitting Earth 65 million years ago.

So if you ever look at M90 through a scope that image has travelled for 65 million years.

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Well, you live and learn. (I did warn you that I was a complete Astonomy numpty)

Right, my star details are as follows. I'm not totally sure which of the details I have you actually need so I'll just put the lot down.

Like I said in a previous post, any info on the Star, Constellation and how to find them would be hugely appreciated.

Right Ascension: 1h38m47s

Declination: +49*11'16"

Constellation: Andromeda

Visual Mag. Indicator 9.2

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Well - if you think the eyepatch is wierd you should see some of the gear we wear when stood out in the cold all night. Looks more like a covert SAS meeting than a stargazing session sometimes lol.

As for buying and naming a star - I coulda done that for you, and sent a load of taccy dcuments and co-ords, for half the price - and you'd have cash left over for a scope lol - thats love for you I guess hehe!

I got a goto scope for the missus and told her to name her own star - there's a trillion, million, gazillion to choose from, and it should keep her quiet till the sun goes bang! Who said romance is dead?

Stellarium however (mentioned above) is a great idea - and I see folks are researching the co-ords for you - good luck with it ;)

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This could be the one. Pretty near to 51 Andromeda.

TYC 3286-1645-1

Visual Magnitude: 9.09

Color Index: 1.18

Blue Magnitude: 10.48

Proper Motion in Right ascension: 0.020

Proper Motion in Declination: -0.023

Coordinates: Apparent

Apparent RA: 01h38m47.929s DE:+49°16'30.00"

Mean of the date RA: 01h38m47.202s DE:+49°16'10.63"

Astrometric J2000 RA: 01h38m09.729s DE:+49°13'07.13"

Ecliptic L: +42°56'23" B:+35°56'10"

Galactic L: +130°43'50" B:-12°56'39"

Visibility for observatory:

Geneva 2010-01-26 22h31m27s ( CET )

Universal Time: 2010-01-26T21:31:27 JD=2455223.39684

Local Sideral Time:05h51m02s

Hour Angle: 4h12m

Azimuth:+290°46'

Altitude:+51°33'

Circumpolar

Culmination: 18h24m +86°19'

From "TYC 3286-1497-1" to "TYC 3286-1645-1"

Separation: +00°01'44.3" PA:28°

Offset: 0h00m05.1s +00°01'32"

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Well, you live and learn. (I did warn you that I was a complete Astonomy numpty)

Right, my star details are as follows. I'm not totally sure which of the details I have you actually need so I'll just put the lot down.

Like I said in a previous post, any info on the Star, Constellation and how to find them would be hugely appreciated.

Right Ascension: 1h38m47s

Declination: +49*11'16"

Constellation: Andromeda

Visual Mag. Indicator 9.2

what other coordinates do you have normally it comes with TYC 1296.666.1 ?

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I just put co-ords in to CduC and it centered on that star.

Whicever one is right its a pretty obscure star and will need either skill or a very well aligned go-to to find it.

Lol i wonder if my Dob can find my one lol, when theres 1000 stars in the same place. :eek:

i would just point at the star in the same location and say that our star, :evil6: with a cheeky grin.

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Lol i wonder if my Dob can find my one lol, when theres 1000 stars in the same place. :eek:

i would just point at the star in the same location and say that our star, :evil6: with a cheeky grin.

I would just point to the dimmest star you can see next to 51 Andromeda and say...

"Darling I've bought you that star there"

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