Hind's Crimson Star

[NGC 1502]

Hi all. Last evening (18 Jan) it was clear, but with the almost

full moon, I hesitated to set up a scope. But in the end I couldn't

pass up a rare clear night. So I got out my 6" F4 on my altaz mount.

Then I recalled a friend mentioning Hind's crimson star (R Leporis)

and thought I'd give it a go. I was glad I did !

I scanned below Orion with my 10x50s, and easily found the main

stars of Lepus, using my S&T pocket sky atlas, then went after my

target through the scope. It took a few minutes, but when I found

the star, there was absolutely no doubt why it's called a Crimson

star. Wow ! really strong colour, cannot recall a more obvious hue.

If you are a star hopper like me, a good guide to the star is an

oblong asterism of stars about 1.5 degrees to the south, these

are easy to find in binocs, even under a dodgy sky.

A short piece is here R Leporis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia it has

the RA & Dec if thats how you do it, or it may be in the data base

of goto scopes, not sure about that.

Well worth checking out, and a reminder to me not to pass up any

clear night All the best, Ed.

[Mark at Beaufort]

Yes I totally agree with you that even with a near full moon it great to view objects like hind's crimson star, star clusters and doubles.

I went out last night with the 4" frac on my skywatcher skytee alt/az mount and viewed doubles.

Mark

[Talitha]

Thanks for bringing this up, Ed... it's truly a must-see target.

After viewing it for the first time a number of years ago, i wrote "Looks just like a drop of blood" in my log book... the intensity of the color is really quite stunning.

[QldLiz]

Yes, we checked out this carbon star a few months ago, and it was good, though not as red as I would have hoped.

We then went onto to the carbon star in Orion ... W Orionis I think, which was also quite easy to find, and it was really red!!!!!

We are lucky dwon Under that the carbon star ESB 365 is right next to Beta Crucius, and is nice and red too.

[Nexus 6]

Excellent Ed, I really must have a look at it, it will be a 1st.

Thanks for the post and link.

[DarkerSky]

Nice one Ed. From what you and others have said on this thread, I've got this down now as a must-see target. I agree with both you and Mark: a full moon is a good time to hunt down doubles and unusual stellar objects like this one. I was doing some doubles in Taurus the same evening.

[acey]

Yes, it's a cracker - I first came across it by accident last year while star-hopping to some galaxies in the vicinity and was blown away by its vivid colour. Also check out Hind's Variable Nebula in Taurus (reflection nebula illuiminated by T Tauri), one of the most-studied DSOs of the 19th-century. Hind has some great objects named after him!

John Russell Hind - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Nexus 6]

Yes, it's a cracker - I first came across it by accident last year while star-hopping to some galaxies in the vicinity and was blown away by its vivid colour. Also check out Hind's Variable Nebula in Taurus (reflection nebula illuiminated by T Tauri), one of the most-studied DSOs of the 19th-century. Hind has some great objects named after him!

John Russell Hind - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hi acey, thanks for the tip on Hinds Variable Nebula and the link for him. must see his Crimson star first though.

[LukeSkywatcher]

Nice colour. I'll check it out next clear night. Its just a hop,skip and a jump......south of Rigel.

[Talitha]

Also check out Hind's Variable Nebula in Taurus (reflection nebula illuiminated by T Tauri), one of the most-studied DSOs of the 19th-century.

Been waiting for a chance to see this one but clouds/cold/Moon have interfered.

What aperture is needed, and does it benefit from a specific filter?

Thx!!

[acey]

I thought I'd seen Hind's Variable Nebula (NGC 1555), but checking my records I realise I haven't! I was confusing it with Hubble's Variable Nebula.

Hind found his nebula in 1852 using a 7" refractor (according to Wolfgang Steinicke's book, "Observing and Cataloguing Nebulae and Star Clusters"), and D'Arrest saw it in 1855 using a 4.6" refractor. But then the nebula faded (hence its fame), disappearing altogether between 1868 and 1890, when it was rediscovered by Barnard and Burnham using the 36" Lick refractor. It then vanished again, and was picked up again photographically in 1899. It seems to have remained very faint since then: Hind's VN isn't listed in Luginbuhl and Skiff, and Burnham's Celestial Handbook says it "can be detected only with the largest telescopes". On the other hand it's listed in the SkyAtlas 2000 Companion, and its inclusion in the Sharpless HII catalogue (as number 238) suggests that a UHC might enhance it. Wikipedia describes it as Herbig-Haro object: seems there's a combination of reflection and emission going on. Struve identified another object in the vicinity, listed as NGC 1554, but there's only a pair of stars at the location, nicknamed "Struve's Lost Nebula".

I found this discussion at Cloudy Nights, which suggests that 18" is probably a realistic minimum, though there are claims of sightings using much less:

http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/4172223/page/0/view/collapsed/sb/5/o/all

Definitely worth a try. And even if the nebulae themselves are beyond view, this is a little patch of sky with a lot of historical and scientific interest.

[Nexus 6]

Wow, I guess my meager 9.25" is way short of the mark for this one!

Thanks for the info acey.

[george7378]

I've never heard of this star - I observed the Garnet Star (also a very luminous and very red star) in the Summer, so I will have to have a go at this one too.

[Talitha]

Thanks for the link Acey, i'll give it a try asap.

[LukeSkywatcher]

"Hind's Variable Nebula (NGC 1555)"

Ok i know how stars can be variable. How can a nebula be a variable nebula?

The stars within (some of them) it that illuminate it are variable stars?

[acey]

That's right, they're nebulae lit up by variable stars: T Tauri in the case of Hind's and R Monocerotis for Hubble's.

[Talitha]

In researching Hubble's Variable Nebula (for my sketching page in February's issue of Sky at Night magazine), i was surprised to learn that the nebula's variability isn't caused by the variability of R Monocerotis.

Apparently, the nebula's brightness can change in just a few weeks, and the changes are thought to be caused by dust clouds orbiting the star and blocking some of its light from reaching the nebula.... like cosmic hand shadow puppets.

[acey]

Aha, very interesting. I guess I should have known that if I'd thought a bit harder, because I'm sure I've seen the Hubble VN cited as an instance of the "searchlight effect" where you can have something that looks like its travelling faster than light when in fact it's more like a searchlight beam playing on a cloud - not an actual moving object.

Personally I think it's a bit unfair that Hubble gets all the glory for the VN when it was discovered by Herschel (though Hubble found the variability). I beleive that in the nineteenth century it and some others of similar form were referred to as "cometary nebulae".

I'll look forward to your piece, Carol!

[Talitha]

Thanks, i hope you'll get a chance to try sketching it, it's a little cutie. And yes, you're right about the term 'cometary nebulae', i remember reading it when doing the research.... it certainly is befitting.

[acey]

Friday night was clear (limiting mag 6.3) so I had a go at Hind's Variable Nebula with the 12". Establishing exactly which star was T Tauri wasn't straightforward using Uranometria; I had to make use of the Great Atlas Of The Sky (TriAtlas C would also have done it). Having identified the star I tried putting it out of field to see the nebula, but no luck. With a UHC filter there were moments when I thought I had a hint of something, but in the end I had to put this one down as a blank.

[NGC 1502]

Hi all. In my original post, I had used my 6" F4 to view Hind's Crimson Star for

the first time. But last night I used my 10" Dob. Even in my dodgy light polluted

sky, the colour was just so intense, much more so than in the smaller scope.

If you have not viewed this star, I do think it's a 'must see' object. I used 36x

with a 2 degree field to find it, best view was at 92x, the higher mag darkened

the background sky, showed the star's colour better.

Tried for Hind's Variable Nebula, mentioned by others, but was unsuccesful.

Best regards, Ed.