what is that red star?

[Geoff. Lyons]

This may show my ignorance but I'm going to ask anyway. While taking advantage of one of the few crystal-clear nights we get in light polluted Ipswich I was exploring the beautiful area around our Southern Cross with my 8'' dob (Carina Nebula was stunning!). While looking at Bcrux I noticed that to it's left was a faint but noticably very red star. could anyone tell me if this star has a name? thanks.

[Davekyn]

hi Geof,
Sorry can't help you with that, but agree the night sky has been crystal clear in Toowoomba. The weather has really sucked of late. Hope you get more clear weather.
Later.

[ngcles]

Hi Geoff & All,

The star in question is EsB-365 (Espin-Birmingham - 365) and is a very red carbon star.

This star and several others of the same species were discussed recently in this forum at:

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=41125

It is a very lovely sight next to the cold-white / bluish sapphire of Mimosa.

(Rant mode enabled)

Call me a pedant if you will (and I know many will), but if I have a pet "what cheeses me off" in astronomy, it has to be the increasingly common use of the name "Beecrux" or "Becrux" or "Bcrux" for the star Beta Crucis. Arrrggggghh!!

It already has a very beautiful common (though seemingly becoming less common) name: Mimosa. Let's not let that lovely appellation die (at least before me) !!

(Rant mode disabled)

(Not hard to tell from the above that I was clouded out tonight only 10 mins into an observing night after a 1hr drive to get there. Grrrrr ... Not happy Jan!! Where's the Valium!! :mad2::mad2::mad2::mad2::mad2:)


Best,

Les D

[mozzie]

les i was looking crux last night some nice red stars and the name mimosa is one of the better names some are hard to say even spell but we should use them as often as possible
mozzie

[avandonk]

Here is an image of Beta Crucis. At a very short exposure the deep red colour is more pronounced.

Bert

[Geoff. Lyons]

thanks for picking me up on that. I agree that Mimosa is a much more 'romantic' name . I was reading a star chart at the time, trying to find the red star's name so I quoted Bcrux (yuk) straight from the chart. Geoff.

[pgc hunter]

lol I hate the Becrux name aswell. I love that red star near it, it kinda sparked a love affair with carbon stars for me. Now if only all this clag would dissappear.....

[Enchilada]

(Rant Mode Enabled)

MIMOSA

is the proper name for Beta Crucis.

The offensive astronomical swear-word Becrux :mad2: is just a nasty American invention, who mostly cannot even see it as it is below their owm horizon!

Astronomical American Imperialism just gives me the screaming willies! :scared:

This article might help you know why?

http://homepage.mac.com/andjames/Page208.htm

(Sorry for the shouting, but sometimes it is necessary.)

[ngcles]

Hi Enchilada & All,

Just read the essay at the link you supplied and find myself broadly in agreement on virtually everything.

I do like the idea of naming the stars of the Cross after the cardinal virtues, though perhaps in order to bring them into line with the truly old and traditional star names we ought to put them in Arabic, translate them (badly or poorly) into Greek and then re-translate into Latin and then anglicize the Latin? [please visualise a "tounge-in-cheek emoticon" here]

See the (not unusual) case on Betelgeuse here on Wiki:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betelgeuse

under the heading Etymology for a bit of potted history on how its name has be continually "*******ised" over the millenia.

I still wonder how Delta Velorum missed out on a name -- not to mention how Gamma Velorum (Regor -- Roger backwards for Roger Chaffey of Apollo 1) missed out until the 1960s ...

Off star names momentarily and on to optical designs, another astronomical "what cheeses me off" I acquired (caught) early in my astronomy career from Steven Lee, relates to Cassegrain.

For decades if not centuries it was:

Newton = Newtonian

Cassegrain = Cassegrainian

But, for the last 20-odd years all I hear is Cassegrain -- even worse, when imaging, people refer to it as "prime focus" when they mean the Cassegrainian focus.

Why are Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes not called Schmidt-Cassegrainians.

Maybe it just doesn't fit in the advertising, or its "too much of a mouthfull"

This (unlike Mimosa-Becrux) is one I want dead before I die ...


Best,

Les D

[mark3d]

here's something you might find interesting, it plots the brightness of a star and the colour...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:HRDiagram.png

the redder they are the cooler they are, likewise the bluer they are the hotter they are (counter-intuitive!)

our Sun is a "main sequence" star


.

[MrB]

Not really, it's true for most things.
Steel (actually, most metals) moves through the same colours as it is heated up.
A dull cherry red at around 750deg C, Orange at ~900C through to yellow at ~1000C.
Think of a torch lightglobe filament (Tungsten), with lots of power it is bright white, as the battery goes flat it gets less power(cooler filament) and gets yellower, thru to orangey-red for a dead battery.

[Robh]

Geoff. Lyons (post 01-03-2009),
Sorry, came in late on this one. This carbon star is also known as DY Crucis, being a variable star with an irregular cycle. It can be found in the SIMBAD database on the net using the identifier DY Cru. An amateur Australian astronomer, Fraser Farrell, has given it the rather delightful name of Ruby Crucis which just might stick.

[Zaps]

I like it and hope hope it does stick! From now on I'll be referring to it as that.

[pgc hunter]

Ruby Crucis..... I can dig it :thumbsup: