[guide-user] Re: Aldebaran

Roger Curry Feb 23, 2000

OVE wrote:

>Dear Guider's
>A bit off topic, but anyway...
>
>Try to look at Aldebaran. It is positioned in the center of a 'cross' og =
>'non-stars' which is shaped almost like a swastika. It is almost exactly =
>pointing N-S and E-W.
>I wonder if it is real?
>I tried to take a picture but there is about 10 orders of magnitude in =
>difference betwen Aldebaran ant the 'non stars', so I did not succeed.
>What is a non-star?

This has to be a diffraction spike from Aldebaran itself. Typically, a
bright star in a photograph will show rays eminating from it. This
is usually caused by the secondary mirror support (spider) of the
telescope. This is like the infamous "Saturn Like Object" in the
vicinity of comet Hale-Bopp that caused such a stir among the
UFO devotees but which any amateur astronomer should have
been able to identify in a glance.

If I am not mistaken, the Guide Star Catalog was a result of
optically scanning the Palomar Sky Survey plates. Many of
the "non-star" objects are film defects or parts of extended
objects like galaxies or nebulae. It would not surprise me if
a few asteroid images show up as "non-star" objects as well.

That was a neat find. I will certainly show that to others.

Thanks.

Roger


---------------
Roger Curry
Jacksonville, Florida
Visit the NEFAS Web Site at http://www.jacksonville.net/~rcurry/nefas.html