Red stars

[JamesC]

I'd been meaning to track down some carbon stars for some time, but kept putting it off until I saw a recent post by Abdul Ahad on uk.sci.astronomy. He has a table of the reddest stars. Some googling later I came across a set of charts of variable stars by the Japan Variable Stars Study Association. Although not a carbon star, Herschel's Garnet Star is indeed very red - and good in binoculars. WZ Cas (which is a carbon star) is particularly nice because the surrounding star field is quite rich and it really makes the erratic colour of WZ stick out. Although quite faint, I also liked U Cam because of it's relative proximity to Kemble's cascade. I also tracked down V Aql and RS Cyg. I'm looking forward to tracking down more of these stars as the seasons turn.

[JamesC]

I think stars I will add to my observing list are:

Almach

CE Tauri (Abdul's Ruby Star, see above)

W Ori (as much because of the location as anything else)

R Leporis (Hind's Crimson Star)

Y CVn (La Superba)

Other suggestions welcome

[brianb]

The field of the Double Cluster contains lots of red stars, many of them are known SRc variables ... the ones that spring to mind are BU and RS Per which are practically embedded in the clusters. S Per is not far away either but really needs more aperture to bring out its colour (it's around mag. 10.5 at the moment).

[QldLiz]

Also love those little red carbon stars, though they can be tricky to find sometimes.

We are lucky in S.Hemisphere as there is an easy carbon star that i check out each viewing session.

Its ESB 365, and it lies very close to Beta Crucis, in same FOV.

[iamjulian]

Best one I saw so far was variable T Lyrae. Just a few degrees from Vega. Dark blood red when I saw it. It was before I'd even heard of carbon stars and I was wondering what it could possibly be. The Garnet star is copper red, but nothing like T Lyrae. Defintiely one you should add to your list.

[AztecastroMcJ]

in ur linked list as TX Psc,

19 Piscium extra red carbon star

[JamesC]

Thanks for the suggestions. Took a look at T Lyrae and TX Psc last night. I'm not sure I would describe T Lyrae as blood red, but it was definitely redder than your average star. TX Psc is a bright as they go. Even although it's not relevant to the red star thread, I also looked at Almach through a scope for the first time - wow, that's a pretty double. I'll be getting round to the double cluster and the other stars in my short-list in due course.

[ronin]

Any use, assuming you don't already have it:

NCKAS -Carbon Stars