Have Star, need RA and Dec

[Greenswale]

I am taking an interest in carbon stars, and seek to observe lots of them. I have been prowling star charts, identifying stars, and approximating RA and Dec using Uranometria.

These stars need not be easy to see in a 12" dob, so precise RA and Dec will be a real advantage. My approximations are reasonable, but.....

So the question. If I have a star identified by constellation and alpha character (eg Ophicus TW), what is the simplest source to determine a fairly accurate RA and Dec?

[gary]

Hi Wren,

Happy New Year.

If you go to the Argo Navis User's Group here (feel free to join if you have
not done so already) -
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/argo_navis_dtc/
You will see there is a Files section on the left hand side.

Beneath that there are some user contributed Argo Navis User Catalogs here -
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/argo_navis_dtc/files/User%20Catalogs%20/

One of the catalogs is entitled Carbon+Var225.txt and is a list of 225 carbon stars
down to mag 10 listed by variable star I.D. that was kindly contributed by
Argo Navis onwer Bob Rose. It includes TW OPH.

Using the Argonaut utility, you can download them into your Argo Navis.

Bob has also contributed other catalogs, including a list of 437 carbon stars down to mag 10 using CGCS I.D.'s.

Since Argo Navis uses a human readable plain text format for its catalogs, you can
also read the RA/Dec's directly.

Best Regards

Gary Kopff
Managing Director
Wildcard Innovations Pty. Ltd.
20 Kilmory Place, Mount Kuring-Gai
NSW. 2080. Australia
Phone +61-2-9457-9049
Fax +61-2-9457-9593
wildcard@wildcard-innovations.com.au
http://www.wildcard-innovations.com.au

[Greenswale]

Well!!!

Thanks Gary, I should have realised........!!!

[alan plummer]

BH Crucis has been clasified spectral type 'S', meaning that it's in transition towards the 'C' class. As we've (VSOers) been watching, it's just now thought by some to be a fully fledged carbon star.

(J2000) 12 16 16.79 -56 17 09.6 and varies between 6.6 - 9.8 V mag.

All red giants are variable. Become a variable star observer and contribute to our understanding of them. They sure are beautiful things to look at. They change colour too, as they pulsate.

Alan.

[Greenswale]

Oh dear, seems that I will need another telescope........