Observing List #1 - In the News

Observing List #1 - In the News

 

Because Not All Astronomical Objects in the News are Necessarily Only "Hubble-Observable".

I don't know about you, but I do enjoy reading about the latest astronomical finds on the innitial pages of every new issue of Astronomy magazine I happen to lay my hands on or even the less generous space dedicated to such events on Sky & Telescope (though, from the obervational point of view, the latter cannot be seen as something negative - each of these publications, thankfully, seem to have character of their own) or even reading about said news on the pages of New Scientist or, when the event/object has caught enough attention, elsewhere - enough to be given coverage (usually exacerbated ones) by mass media.

Mind you, I don't mean the usual eclipse, new-kid-in-the-block comet of the year, blue moon (or worse: supermoon!): there's plenty of coverage for that, as we all know well. Besides said objects are either easily found, like the moon - not requiring therefore, an observing list to be pointed at - or have one or another chart made by the likes of S&T, plotting its recent whereabouts, as it is the case with comets.

Not your average object...

 

Nossir, most of the objects I refer to are usually outside the scope (almost a pun, eh?) of the average observer, whom usually content themselves with observing the moon and the most talked-about objects. I actually mean objects which maybe even us seasoned amateur astronomers read about but dismiss straight away as uninteresting or outside our league - ie., our scopes' reach. 

In fact, one or another object on the list can even be seen by naked eye (or almost that, as it is the case with 5.5-magnitude star 49 Cap, also on the list) - it's just that they would probably and simply be overlooked, had their acquaintance not popped out in the news.

So the reason for their listing is that, thanks to some interesting piece of news (from reliable sources only) pasted onto the "Notes" field for each entry of each list, I deemed them "somehow-worth-bothering-looking-at",  instead of dismissing them as uninteresting or not-easily reached by our backyard instruments.

If you positively identify yourself with the latter statement, the SkySafari observing list in question, offered for download at the end of this post, may be of some interest to you: though not claiming to be comprehensive, it aims to put in your observational spotlight, such less talked-about (though newsworthy) stars, novae and the like which, though usually not as pleasing  to the eye as nebulae and galaxies are, might still offer you that extra incentive to point your telescope at them.

Mind you, some objects in this list might be so unconspicuously pinned down against the Milky Way background stars, you will probably still have some minor star-hopping to do within your eyepiece's field of view, even after being dutifully taken there by your goto system, in order to be able to pinpoint them with certainty and tick them off your list!

 The List

So the not-so-long list is comprised, for starters, of the one star that has generated so much debate and incited so much curiosity from the astronomic community: Tabby's Star. An otherwise unintersting main-sequence star whose weird and unexplicable variations in brightness were speculated, among umpteen theories, to may be even the tell-tale sign of the presence of none other than a Dyson Sphere.
Isn't that reason enough to take a peek through a 4-to-6-inch aperture instrument (minimum) a this dim 12-magnitude star anyway!? As for the speculations, they have carried over well into 2017, and, as the Sky & Telescope editorial for June 2017 puts is rightly: "Who among among us Earthlings would not be fascinated to hear the solution to this celestial brainteaser, when and if it comes?"

Next on the list is equally dim KIC 9832227, at 12.3 magnitudes it's nothing less than the very first star to be predicted to go nova within a precise time frame in 2022! Just like still-to-be-published Supernova Candidates list, won't it be great to be able to, after you observe it back again in 2022, boast to your astronomy-loving peers, who didn't happen to stop by this blog: "I observe it BEFORE it went nova!"?

Steering clear off stars a bit, there is globular cluster NGC 6496, which, if goggled for, will show you that Hubble spotted metal-heavy, ancient stars pulsating in its entrails, a few years back.

Then, keeping up with the variety of phenomena typical of space events, star HD 172555 was detected to having debris around it, denouncing that two planets collided against each other not so long ago! 

As if knowing a star possesses a planetary system, weren't already reason enough for observing a star with interest, I believe knowing a moon-sized planet was totally obliterated in a collision around that apparently pacific star, puts said observation into a whole new perspective per se.

Unlike the previous objects, all star 49 Librae has to count under its belt in terms of curious news, is that, as was reported on Astronomy magazine (April 2017, page 13) it finally had its age precised from the previous estimated 2.3 billion years, to staggering 12 billion years for its age. A fact that deems it a rather geriatric star for one not belonging into any globular cluster.

Well, as you can imagine, though not that long, the list goes on. So do expect it to be updated now and then with whichever piece of news (ie., new objects) I happen to stumble upon and find worth taking a gander at.

Bear in mind all objects had said piece of news pasted into their respective "Notes" field, in the SkySafari list. Before anything, I apologize in advance for not bothering citing my sources for the earliest objects - the list was meant for personal use, innitially, - hence such appalling, though unintentional, negligence. But either googling for some excerpts from it or the object itself, will certainly take you to even more info or the source I drank from back then.

As for the notes themselves, you can try to scroll them down, and read them whilst observing the object, but the best approach I found was having it read out by Android text-to-speech feature (iOS also has it) but using an app which I'll be talking about in depth, in a post or two.

Suffice to say having said notes read out to you while observing is, at least for me, akin to having a fellow (usually more experienced) astronomer lecture you on them while you're at the eyepiece.

So, I do recommend that post read as soons as you can, or, for the early birds, as soon as I decide to publish it over here.

Clear Skies to all!

Nilson Bazana,

May 2017

Download the list:

In The News