IY Comae Berenices

Hello everyone.

Let us finally sort out this star IY Comae Berenices once and for all. Is it a carbon star or what is it? "Is it a bird or a plane"? LOL!!

My deepest thanks to Darren for all his hard work in checking out this enigmatic star.
I have reached the conclusion that it is NOT a carbon star. There are too many sources which state it is an M class star. And that suggestion is even taking into account that there is no redness in the star's hue. On the 2 occasions I observed IY Com it did show that delightful tangy orange hue which often shows up in carbon stars.
However all my sources, i.e, VisieR, Universe Guide, Guide 9.1 DVD, and the AAVSO website simply state that IY Com is an M2 class star.
I have had very recent discussions with some people on www.aavso.org
The Simbad website is the only source which suggests IY Comae is a carbon star. And it only displays that initially. It then goes on to say IY Com is a K9 class star.
Now to make it perfectly clear, Simbad only gives summaries as to what astronomical observers are sending in to its website. The information is not coming from any spacecraft at all. I'm sorry to have discovered this. Such suggestions ought to be checked further as they may not be reliable.
I'm also sorry to say I have not discovered a spectra, i.e, any line graphs from any spectroscopists of the star as yet. I don't believe there are any such people in Ireland.
For complete reliability, we have to trust the good people of AAVSO.
It is relatively easy to discover a complete list of carbon stars in any single constellation in the VSX section of this important website. And I shall be using that to discover any carbon stars which we can observe from Ireland from now on.

Kind regards to everyone from Aubrey.

Hi Aubrey,

What an interesting post, and delighted to read that you have been able to confirm its status. Does this mean you're down a Carbon star in your goal to reach 100?

Very many thanks for the update.

Darren.

Indeed it does, Darren.

And I have discovered some other discrepancies going further back in time.
So give me some leeway to sort it all out.
There appears to be unreliable information going around in regards to carbon stars.

By the way we might have clear skies on Sunday night 21st June. That is over here in Dublin.

Kind regards from Aubrey.

Hi Aubrey, 

That doesn't sound too good,  but at least you'll know your numbers are accurate once you recalculate them. Just watch, the skies will clear making it all the more difficult to spend time indoors going back over the the data.

And on that, thanks for the weather update. It seems like an age since I was out with the scope observing DSOs. 

Maybe tomorrow?

Darren..

Hello once again, Darren.

You continue to be a great encouragement to me!
And Paul (Lunartic) is also.
Thank you to your both!
As it is due to rain tonight (Saturday), I am aiming to sort out these carbon stars a lot.
About 2 or 3 years ago I observed what I thought were true carbon stars in Bootes.
It seems none of them are true carbons at all.

Clear skies from Aubrey.

Hi Aubrey, 

I can say the same about you: Your detailed observations reports, and related posts always spur me to look up.

I very much enjoyed my time in and around Boites this Spring. It has many lovely sights, and quite a few orange coloured stars, I wonder how many are Carbon stars? It seems like there are fewer Carbon ones than I thought there were at the start of season. 

I still think it is a wonderful constellation, and I look forward to viewing it again next spring when it's nicely positioned over my back garden. 

Clear skies, 

Darren.