Anyway, onto the October 2020 Carbon Star Hunt!
Every month I will present 3 carbon stars for anyone to “hunt”. I will try to mix it up so that there will be one more northerly, but the other two should be visible to both northern and southern hemispheres.
There are no restrictions on finding the objects - star charts,
I will also try to provide some background on each target - usually from AAVSO, including most recent observed magnitudes - as (most of) these are variable stars. I saw something recently that stated not ALL Carbon's are variable - but I have not looked further into that.
For the time being, all targets are going to come from the Astronomy Leagues 100 Carbon Stars list.
For some basic information, here is the wikipedia entry on Carbon Stars.
October 2020 Targets:
RU Aqr - Data. I guess this is a boring star to observe as there are NO observations since at least 01/01/2020 in the AAVSO database. According to SkySafari and AAVSO, it ranges from 8.5 - 10.1, and is 9.09 currently.
19 Psc or TX Psc - This one has multiple names in the databases, so I used both, just in case whatever source you use doesn't have one or the other. Data. Observations. This is a fairly bright one and in dark skies is likely naked eye. It ranges from 4.79 - 5.2. it makes up one of the stars of the circlet of Pisces - I want to say the most eastern star - but I could be wrong in my directions!
UU Aur - Data. Observations. This looks like it is a fun one, as its a double star. The primary is the Carbon and sits in a mag range of 4.9 -7. The secondary is significantly dimmer - at 11.8, it should still be in the range of most scopes. According to SkySafari, it sits 116.9" away at 223 degrees. Can you spot it?
That's it for this month - feel free to tag me, reply in this thread, both or neither! There's no points, no scoring - just get out there and observe!
Good luck, good hunting and clear, dark skies to all!
(Remember, there are TWO full moons this month for some (all?) of us!)