FI Vir (Ross 128) observing campaign

Arne Henden has pointed out to me (thanks, Arne) that FI Vir is presently only 4 hours from the Sun, so has an airmass of about 3 at twilight... Snapshots during the night as requested therefore won't be possible. However, anything you can do to image this star before it sets in the evenings would be greatly appreciated! Many thanks!

Good observing,

Elizabeth

FI Vir measurments from last night were V=11.10 and R=9.79

The location was about 23 arc seconds from the posted coordinates??  Using VPHOT the measured coordinates were 11:47:45.02 + 00:47:55.0

Any chance these are different objects?

Hi Gordon,

Thanks for observing this difficult target! SIMBAD equates FI Vir and Ross 128, and gives proper motion figures for FI Vir as RA = 605.26, Dec = -1219.28 mas/yr.

Good observing,

Elizabeth

I also did observations and observed the same issue that the coordinates given in VSX are not correct any mor due to the high proper motion.

Need to correct positions before being able to submit observations to AAVSO.

Josch

I did sent my observatins to the database.

Both V and R filters sued.

Josch

Thanks to HMB and MGW for your observations this week. We used your observations to search for any significant variability on Ross 128 that might otherwise indicate stellar phenomena. Turns out then that the most probable cause for the radio emissions from Ross 128 are the product of a geo satellite. We still don't know why this satellite emitted signals quite different from other satellites, but that is probably a job for a satellite engineer now to figure out. We don't need any more observations of Ross 128 or other stars until our next observation cycle, but I noticed that you are the first ones observing that star in AAVSO. Thanks also to WEO for putting things together. Best, -Abel.

Will stop observations,

Josch