Suggestions please

[JohnH]

I hope that nobody minds a slightly different question on this forum.

My uncle in Canada has just celebrated his 99th birthday and I am planning, optimistically, for his 100th. He was a radar research engineer, he is still a ham radio operator and the last Skype chat we had included discussions about the James Webb telescope and recent theories of dark matter (ie he is very much on the ball!)

I thought that it would be nice if I could send him an image of an object that is as close as possible to 100 light years away. So, can anyone suggest a largish (my fov is approximately 2.5 x 1.5 degrees) object to image from Bortle 7? I am planning now so that I can image when it is in the most opportune position.

Thanks,

John

[RobertM]

That's a tall order !  The closest cluster (Hyades) is 150ly and that is quite large and I don't know of any nebulae that close so I think you'll have to look for a star.

Sorry not much help.

[ApophisAstros]

The planet, currently known as TOI 700 d, is about 100 light years away. It is orbiting a star that is about 40 percent of our sun's mass and size, according to CNN.
HTH
Roger

[Roberto]

That's a nice project!  Robert's suggestion of an object in the Hyades is appropriate although it's a bit "older" than the light you are looking for...There are plenty of close by stars that could fit the bill, the majority are in Southern hemisphere's constellations though.  One that could fit the bill, it's currently on show and more importantly, you can actually see unaided from a relatively dark location is 15 Delphini. 

https://www.universeguide.com/star/102805/15delphini

It's close to Altair so maybe a wide field shot of the area showing brilliant Altair and 15 Delphini would be a nice composition.

It's an interesting star in its own right; see the link above.  Not too disimilar from our own Sun so perhaps, there's an earth sized planet orbiting it and someone over there is looking for a similar gift for a relative?!

Roberto

[JohnH]

Thanks. It's a shame we live in a boring part of the galaxy!

An exoplanet is an interesting idea.

My uncle is a keen amateur radio enthusiast, I sent him my image of the Rosette Nebula and pointed out the Ha red light. He emailed straight back saying that if he pointed his directional aerial to the right place and tuned his receiver to 1,420.4MHz he could listen to it (RESPECT!!!). It did make me wonder if there are any strong radio sources in the region of 100 light years away.

Regards,

John

[RobertM]

It did make me wonder if there are any strong radio sources in the region of 100 light years away.

What, like a supernova remnant - I'm sure there isn't, after all there are still more births than deaths so fertility must me ok

[JohnH]

It did make me wonder if there are any strong radio sources in the region of 100 light years away.

What, like a supernova remnant - I'm sure there isn't, after all there are still more births than deaths so fertility must me ok

The Sun and Jupiter are obviously way too close.

Proxima Centauri appears to be an emitter but in the wrong hemisphere (especially from Ottawa?) and only about 4 light years. I was wondering if anyone could suggest a star at around 100 light years that might emit a strong enough signal to be received by an amateur radio enthusiast?

John

[Rick]

There are probably quite a few stars close to the 100ly distance, but the rabbit hole I went down picked out the spectroscopic double-star Nu2 Draconis (which is the more distant star of the optical double-star Nu Draconis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nu_Draconis ).

Delta Cassiopeiae, an eclipsing binary, ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta_Cassiopeiae ) is also close to the 100ly distance.

[Mac]

How about NGC 2336

Slightly different time scale being its 100 Million Light years away and is quite a pretty galaxy to image.

Plus its in the Northern hemisphere.

Mac.

[JohnH]

Thanks everyone, I value the input.

Regards,

John

[garrick]

Hi,

Sticking with the Galaxy Theme, how about M100 (A Grand Design Spiral).

Clear Skies,

GW