Seeing Red - A Few Winter Carbon Stars

I like to think of myself as a well rounded backyard stargazer. I enjoy a little variety in my observing sessions, and I bet there are many of you out there just like me. I'm captivated by everything from faint fuzzy's to the Moon, so I have plenty of objects to choose from on any given night of observing. One of the newest class of objects that I have been introduced to are carbon stars, and they are definitely worth sharing to my fellow stargazers. These are stars that exhibit a distinct orange to deep red hue, caused by an abundance of carbon rather then oxygen in their composition, and their variety in our night sky has surprised me. C'mon, how cool is it to view a star that looks deep red! So if these objects have never been in your eyepiece before, here's a  list and finder charts for a few that I have come across myself this winter, and worth a look in my opinion.


R Leporis - A.k.a. Hinds Crimson Star. WOW!  I gasped the first time I viewed this red gem. At magnitude 7, its an easy find in the constellation of Lepus, The Hare, which is below the feet of the constellation Orion. In my Meade LS 8 ACF, this carbon star simply "popped" in the field of view (FOV) of my 26mm eyepiece, so it doesn't require much power at all. I recall this star as a deep red, almost like a celestial stop light screaming  "STOP, check me out!". Simply stunning.

R Leporis - Hinds Crimson Star
HIP 23203 / HR 1607 / SAO 150058   R.A. 5h 00.10m  Dec. -14 47.4

W Orionis - This magnitude 6 star was bright, and a great orange color. Very few stars appeared in the FOV of my 26mm PL (78x), which highlighted the brilliance of this orange pinpoint of light

W Orionis - HIP 23680 / HR 1648 / SAO 112406
R.A. 5h 05.95m  Dec. +1  11.5` 

 BL Orionis - This magnitude 6 star seemed slightly dimmer to me then W Ori, and just a tad bit less orange color as well. I enjoyed however the star field that it was in, with 20 or so stars speckled about. 

BL Orionis - HIP 30564 / HR 2308 / SAO 95659
R.A. 6h 26.09m  Dec. +14 42.9'

UU Auriga - This magnitude 5 carbon star appeared very close to the visual color of BL Ori, a nice orange hue. Didn't appear to me that much brighter however. It had lots of stars in the FOV, which made it nice to compare its color to the surrounding stars in the same field.  

UU Auriga - HIP 31579 / HR 2405 / SAO 59280
R.A. 6h 37.29m  De. +38 26.1`

RT Orionis  – At magnitude 8, a bit dimmer the but quite a noticeable, burnt orange. There was an interesting hook asterism in the FOV, and these stars were brighter.

RT Orionis HIP 26032
R.A. +5h 33.82m Dec. +7 09.4`

FU Auriga - Interesting FOV, almost appeared to be like a parse open cluster. Nice double star too in the FOV. What makes this a nice carbon star is the field of view with 30 or so stars, and again, a very nice double. The double has a wide separation, with a slight orange hue to the primary, and the secondary appeared bluish. FU Aug was a light red hue, just a bit more red then orange.

FU Auriga - HIP 27398 / HD 38572
R.A. 5h 48.85m Dec. +30 38.1

V Hydra - The one that started it all for me. It was over 2 years ago that I first glimpsed a view of this carbon star, and I was hooked. Its a deep red, surprisingly, a bit lighter in shade compared to R Lep. Hidden in the dim constellation of Hydra, and well within the light cone of Mufreesboro, it was still a noticeable red point of light, just not set against as much as a dark sky as I recall, and this affected some of the contrast I think and thus its appearance. This is said to be the reddest star in our night sky, so I'm interested in what others think when comparing it to R Lep.

V Hydrae - The Reddest star in the Northern Hemisphere.
R.A. 10h 52m  Dec. -21 18`

Carbon Stars are the perfect addition to "spice up" your observing sessions with an object class that is as beautiful as they are interesting. I'll continue to post any further recommended carbon stars, and would love to hear from you if you have any you would like to add or you simply wish to share your own observing sessions of the one's I provided above.

For more information on Carbon Stars

Wikipedia Link

NEW!  Astronomical Leagues Carbon Star Observing Club (Oh Yeah, I'm gonna go for this myself!)