Jay, I sent you my personal list of Carbon Stars but it may be too big to go through. We'll see. I did look at the article from the Northeast Florida Astronomical Society and have a few comments about their best of the best. First it should be R Leporis not R Lepus (in the subsequent longer list, they have the correct R Lep). Next, I have never been impressed by Y Canes Ven or Mu Cephei. Both have been gold without any red at all every time I have looked at them despite the fact that they have impressive names: La Superba and Herschel´s Garnet Star, respectively. Instead of these, I would add V Aquilae and T Lyrae. Carbon stars are a hobby of mine. Unfortunately, the variability of these stars affect the color as well. As a general rule, the dimmer the star is in its cycle, the redder. My personal favorites and the ones I have found most likely to be red or at least reddish orange are R Leporis, V Hydrae, S Cephei, T Lyrae, and V Aquilae.

While searching around early this a.m. I found this article (PDF) from the Northeast Florida Astronomical Society on Observing Carbon Stars http://nefas.org/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=42&func=fileinfo&id=...

I know what a carbon star is, I have just never really taken the time to view them. It also sounds like they are actually really cool to view/image so I am just wondering if anyone here has observed them, what your thoughts are about them and can I supplement my double star observing (which is what I do during the full man/waxing gibbous stages of the moon until I can get back to DSO's) with observations of them? Looking at the magnitude on that list I could see some and others may have to wait until after the full moon. Anyone have a list broken down by season on them? If not it might be a project that I want to do while I'm not teaching. Thoughts? Thanks in advance. _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php Visit the Wiki: http://www.utahastronomy.com