Up to May 1, 2003

DY Crucis is one of the reddest stars in the whole sky. It was once thought to be an RCB star but these knowledge might come from its very red tint that makes observers with low sensitivity to color lose it when it is not bright enough to stimulate their cones. It is a common thing to happen with carbon stars.

Its behaviour is not too periodic although it seems to pulsate with periods in the order of 530 or 270 days. It would be better to call it an L-type star (irregular red variable). The range is 8.4 - 9.8 in visual light.

This is a C-type red giant, a so called carbon star present in the Espin-Birmingham catalogue with the number 365.

Carbon particles prevent blue light from the star to reach us with a resulting B-V around 5 or 6 !!

"Ruby Crucis", as Australian amateur Fraser Farrell named it, is located in the same field as beta Crucis (Mimosa) making it an easy target for the amateur astronomer to find it, although it is not easy to estimate given its color...

Recent variations illustrating its L-type membership:

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