Beta Crucis

Marcos Valério Mataratzis
Star: Beta Crucis
Date & Time: 05/03/2004, 7:42 PM UT
Seeing: 7 <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)>
Transparency:  <1-10 Scale (10 best)>
Location of site: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
(Lat 22°54´ S, 43°14´ W)
Site classification: Suburban
Conditions:
Temperature: 27°C
Humidity: 70%
Sky darkness: 5.0 <Limiting magnitude> 
Telescope: 83mm refractor (f/14.7) Magnification: 38x, 45x and 78x		 Triple system: 1.3, 11.4 and 7.5 magnitudes. Separation of AB pair is 44.3" at 322° while AC is pair is 371.6" at 23°.  B component was very difficult to see, because of its high magnitude, almost limit for my refractor. Very close to A star lies the deepest red carbon star known: DY Crucis.
 



 


Eddy O'Connor
Star: Beta Crucis
Date & Time: Wednesday, May 12th 2004
9-10.30 local; UT +9.
Seeing: 8/10 (10 best)
Transparency: 9/10 (10 best)
Location of site: Terara, New South Wales
Australia, Long.150º.38;
Dec. S 34º.52.
Site classification: Suburban
Weather:
Sky darkness: ---  <Limiting magnitude> 
Telescope: 8" Newt. F9
Eyepieces: 10mm Plossl,18mm Ultima Celestron, 32 mm Teleview Plossl
Magnification:
Harshaw Scale: -2!! (1-5; 1 best).

This great star forms the right arm of the Cross.

It is dazzling White and forms a neat isosceles triangle with one of the richest carbon stars in this part of the sky while a Bluish third star completes a magnificent field.

Ambience: As I packed up I suddenly heard the urgent lowing of the cow across the fence. I looked over and was dimly aware of the  calf as it moved towards the mother on rocky limbs. I looked up at the brilliant sky and wondered for a moment what a new born calf would make of its first night on earth and its first vision of stars, moving satellites and plunging meteorites. I stood on my back steps and traced the dark lanes in the Milky Way running from the Coal Sack to rising Scorpio and beyond which forms the outline of The Emu. I have never seen it so clear from my back yard.  But then, nights like tonight are so special you can wait years for them to come again.

 

 

Luis Balanzino
Star: Beta Crucis
Date & Time: May 17, 2004, 1h to 3h UT
Seeing: 7 <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)>
Transparency: 7 <1-10 Scale (10 best)>
Location of site: Cordoba, Argentina
31.400S, 64.183W
Site classification: Urban area
with considerable light pollution
Conditions: Temperature: 10º C
Moon: in Sagittarius illuminated
fraction 0.76
Sky darkness: 4 <Limiting magnitude> 
Telescope: TAL-1 eq. reflector (110mm f/7.3)
Eyepieces: 25mm TAL Plossl, 15mm TAL Kellner, 3X TAL Barlow
Magnifications: 32x, 96x, 161x
 		 A very bright bluish star, the 20th. brightest in the sky. In the telescope at 32x looks very nice but I can not detect the 11.4 mag. companion (pair Innes 362 AB). Instead, a very wide companion is well visible, this is Dunlop 125 AC. The star is catalogued as Espin-Birmingham 365, a carbon star that looks dark orange or red contrasting with Beta itself.

 

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