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Old 28-05-2018, 03:41 PM
Tropo-Bob (Bob)
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Join Date: Sep 2013
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Corona Borealis- The Grand Tour

This main stars in the 'Northern Crown' form an obvious arc, wherein, Alpha to Epsilon are appear close together in the sky. Indeed, it is probably only in the 'Southern Crown' where the first five stars appear more closely associated.

Corona Borealis is somewhat of a "Moonlight Constellation". There are no DSOs to view here and indeed the faintest star here is normally only at Mag 10.


Below are the subjects in Corona Borealis that I wish to view:-

The Main Stars:

Alpha Coronae Borealis. A binary star with a period of around 17 days. An unusual star in the sense of being hydrogen deficient. Alpha is thought to have been two-white-drawf stars that have previously merged.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_Coronae_Borealis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corona_Borealis

Beta Coronae Borealis. Another binary star with a 10 year period and a seperation of 0.25 arc seconds, which is way-too-small a gap for my equipement to resolve.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beta_Coronae_Borealis

Gamma Coronae Borealis. This consellation is full on binaries! Gamma has a 90 year period and a separation of less than 1 arc second.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma_Coronae_Borealis

Delta Coronae Borealis. This star is in the process of transitioning to be a giant. Delta is also known for having magenitic variations similiar to those of our Sun.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta_Coronae_Borealis
http://stars.astro.illinois.edu/sow/deltacrb.html

Epsilon Coronae Borealis. Epsilon is an orange giant with an orange dwarf companion, whose orbit takes 900 years.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epsilon_Coronae_Borealis


Other objects of interest:

T Coronae Borealis (The Blaze Star). This famous star has featured two seperate nova outbursts some 80 years appart. The last was in 1946, so another could be due any time now! The star can be seen shining at 10th magnitude in its normally quiet state. It may go supernova at some stage and if so, it could appear with the brightness of a crescent Moon.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T_Coronae_Borealis

Zeta Coronae Borealis. An easy double for small telescopes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeta_Coronae_Borealis

Sigma Coronae Borealis. Another fine double where the main star is similiar to our Sun.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigma_Coronae_Borealis

Nu Coronae Borealis. A double said to be visible to the unaided eye. The two components are unrelated and are approximately 60 lightyears from each other.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nu_Coronae_Borealis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nu1_Coronae_Borealis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nu2_Coronae_Borealis

R Coronae Borealis. (A reverse nova). This star is normally around magnitude 6, but can drop to around mag 15.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R_Coronae_Borealis

Last edited by Tropo-Bob; 05-06-2018 at 12:45 PM.
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