Hi PGC & All,
Quote:
Originally Posted by pgc hunter
Seeing as the moon was making its presence felt, I decided to try something different. I printed off a couple of lists of carbon stars with the intention of doing a carbon star hunt. I used the 10" GSo dob.
Kaptyen's Star, mag 8.9
This star didn't show any ruddy hue whatsoever.
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Not completely surprising at that magnitude in this aperture but the main reason is that Kapteyn's star isn't a Carbon star -- but is an extremely interesting star in almost all other respects. It is one of the closest stars just under 13ly distant and has the 2nd highest proper-motion of any known star. Only Barnard's star exceeds it.
It is a M0 sub-dwarf star that is the closest "halo-star" to the Sun -- it is not a member of the Milky Way's disc. The reason why it has such a high proper-motion is because it is swimming backwards around the Milky Way (in the opposite direction to the Sun) -- contrary to the motion of the vast majority of stars.
You can read a bit about it here:
http://www.solstation.com/stars/kapteyns.htm
A very interesting star, but not a Carbon Star.
Best,
Les D