Cocktails and astronomy

It was freezing last night for my first astronomy session in an age last night. So I decided something tropical would help me feel warmer.



 

It has indeed been an age since the weather allowed me to get on with any stargazing, so despite temperatures of minus 3 and a strong desire to crawl under my duvet, I headed outside with my 10x50s to see what I might see. Alas not Comet Pann-STARRS - the sunsets at the moment are pretty, but that is because of the pretty orange and pink thick clouds.

To me, this is always a bad time for binocular astronomy; there's not much in the way of milky way objects to see, and the galaxies of Virgo, currently dominating the southern aspect, are far too faint from my urban skies to see.

I did take the opportunity to find Messier 3, the globular cluster on the borders of Bootes and Canes Venatici halfway betweem Arcturus and Cor Caroli, but was totally unsuccessful in my attempt to see La Superba. It must have passed through my field of view countless times, but I see nothing glowing like a ruby hot coal to confirm its presence. Damn and blast.

Feeling my hands and fingers begin the process of falling off, I turned my 10x50s south, and took in a lovely view of the constellation of Coma Berenices. It's more like an oversized open cluster than a constellatio0n, and although none of its galaxies are visible, it sits there glittering near Leo's back legs, in the manner that legend has it Queen Berenice's hair glittered, impressing the Gods so much they decided to place her shining tresses in the sky.

La Superba

Recently I've become obsessed with a star.

This is just as unhealthy as being obsessed with a woman, and likewise takes place mainly at night, after the pubs have shut. But ever since I read about it - and to be honest for some reason this star has not shown up on my radar until very recently, La Superba has become a nightly target for my atronomical observations.

It is a rare C-J spectral class Carbon star in the constellation of Canes Venatici, The Hunting Dogs, that sits beneath the Great Bears Tail not doing a whole lot apart from being faint.

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

It is said to be the reddest star in the sky, and in my town sky site, rum and coke to hand to keep the cold out, it's a tricky one to find! But find it I have, I think, roughly halfway between Cor Caroli and Megrez.

But it doesn't look very red to me! It looks pink in my 10x50s, I was so gutted! Mu Cepheii, the famous Garnet Star in Cepheus, is far redder, a real bloody ruby of a star. I keep looking at it, and it still looks pink.

Now a pink star is rare enough! But it is not quite what I was hoping for. My explanations are...

1) I'm looking at the wrong star - very possible, knowing me, but it is not a part of the sky rich in stars, I'm pretty sure I've been looking at it.

2) At the moment it's too faint for me to make out much colour in my 10x50s.

3) It's lowish at the moment and the haze and light pollution is ruining the colour.

Any ideas, I'll take them! But to see a star the colour of real blood, not child's wax crayon blood, is something I want to see.