GZOD: a double star, courtesy of Hubble

[JeanTate]

Looks vaguely like some bad art from the 1960s, eh?

It's actually a rather bright double star imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope; AHZ40006z8 is its Galaxy Zoo identifier.

Alice posted this as the Galaxy Zoo Object of the Day, stardate 23rd September, 2010.

Subsequently zooite swengineer worked his magic on it, and produced this:



Look how good the Hubble's optics are; count the Airy rings!

[Ann]

I'd love to check out the color index of this star, to see how the filters of SDSS "interpret" the actual color of stars.

Well, I'm not going to find out about the color index of this star. I followed the link to the Galaxy Zoo page, and while I got excellent coordinates for the star that I could have used to identify it, the magnitude of the star turned out to be too faint for my software to provide any color information about it. The magnitude of the star was somewhere between 14 and 15, and I'm lucky if my software tells me the color of stars of magnitude 12.

Ann

[neufer]

Look how good the Hubble's optics are; count the Airy rings!

The Fairy Folk by William Allingham (19 March 1824 - 18 November 1889)

• Up the airy mountain, Down the rushy glen,
  We daren't go a-hunting For fear of little men;
  Wee folk, good folk, Trooping all together;
  Green jacket, red cap, And grey cock's feather!
  
  Down along the rocky shore, Some make their home,
  They live on crispy pancakes Of yellow tide-foam;
  Some in the reeds Of the black mountain-lake,
  With frogs for their watch-dogs, All night awake.
  
  High on the hill-top The old king sits;
  He is now so old and grey He's nigh lost his wits.
  With a bridge of white mist Columbkille he crosses,
  On his stately journeys From Slieve League to Rosses;
  Or going up with music On cold starry nights,
  To sup with the Queen Of the gay Northern Lights.
  
  They stole little Bridget For seven years long.
  When she came down again Her friends were all gone.
  They took her lightly back, Between the night and morrow;
  They thought that she was fast asleep, But she was dead with sorrow.
  They have kept her ever since Deep within the lakes,
  On a bed of flag-leaves, Watching till she wakes.
  
  By the craggy hill-side, Through the mosses bare
  They have planted thorn trees For pleasure here and there.
  Is any man so daring To dig up one in spite,
  He shall find the thornies set In his bed at night.
  
  Up the airy mountain, Down the rushy glen,
  We daren't go a-hunting For fear of little men;
  Wee folk, good folk, Trooping all together;
  Green jacket, red cap, And grey cock's feather!

[JeanTate]

I'd love to check out the color index of this star, to see how the filters of SDSS "interpret" the actual color of stars.

Well, I'm not going to find out about the color index of this star. I followed the link to the Galaxy Zoo page, and while I got excellent coordinates for the star that I could have used to identify it, the magnitude of the star turned out to be too faint for my software to provide any color information about it. The magnitude of the star was somewhere between 14 and 15, and I'm lucky if my software tells me the color of stars of magnitude 12.

Ann

Well, as you no doubt discovered, this star was imaged by the Hubble, not SDSS, and in only two filters (one of which is way beyond the range of humans' red cones)!