Abstract: The Bright orange star, Kappa Crucis. A very large quite young star in its red giant stage, which paradoxically indicates that its life is drawing to a close. Can you observe any marks about the becoming nova?

Full Text of Proposal

Comments by OPC

General Comments: Kappa Crucis actually is not a red giant, but a blue supergiant (B5Ia). Nevertheless it is an evolved star indeed, and is on its way to a spectacular end as a supernova (not a nova). It is located in the open cluster known as the Jewel Box, which spans more than 10 arcminutes across. The brightest stars are of 6th magnitude in V, like Kappa Cru. The extent and brightness make it not an easy object for the 0.9m Dutch telescope, because the field of view of this telescope is only 3.7 arcminute squared, and such bright stars almost drill a hole in the CCD camera.

Visibility:Visible only at the end of the night.

Special Comments: The star is very bright for direct imaging.

Expected time consumption (including overhead):Very short exposures; about 5 minutes in total.

Proposed facility:Necessarily the Dutch 90 cm telescope, because of the coordinated of the target.