Here we have a small collection of Carbon Stars. A Carbon Star is a star whose atmosphere contains more carbon than oxygen. The two elements combine in the atmosphere to form carbon monoxide. In this process, the oxygen is consumed leaving the carbon atoms free to form other compounds which then result in a deep red color. Classical carbon stars are typically asymptotic giant branch stars although there are dwarf and supergiant carbon stars as well.
-paraphrased from Wikipedia
Another AstroBin member Bruce Rohrlach has done a very nice couple of carbon stars
https://www.astrobin.com/382139/?image_list_page=3&nc=&nce=.
He has an excellent narrative as well that is really worth a look.
These carbon stars are really striking visual objects and, in my humble opinion, well worth the time to replace your camera with an eyepiece and take a look sometime.
We are currently in the monsoon season in Arizona which means limited clear nights. But typically, we do get an hour or two most nights where something can be done. I thought that doing a carbon star project might be a good use of this time so here are four of them that I imaged over several nights, August 11th, 12th and 20th.
One of these, TW Oph, was a little bit special in that it is located in a dense starfield in Ophiuchus. I noticed some nice dark nebulae in the field and I am currently trying to add a bunch more integration to what I've already done to see what comes of it.
In any case, I hope you like this one... Clear Skies and good health to you all!
Comments