Expert: Ed - 4/2/2008

Question
Hello Ed,
Recently I named a star from the aquarius constellation after my girlfriend (a bit corny I know) as an anniversary present at starregistry. The problem is I know nothing about astronomy and don't know how to find it in the sky, or even if its visible.
I live in Portugal and would like to see it this saturday night. Is this possible. I am still trying to borrow a telescope...
The star's coordinates are RA23h8m1.86s D-12º17'25.08''.
Can you help me?

Thank you,
Daniel

Answer
Daniel,

Sorry I'm a little late.  I was on a long bicycle ride yesterday, and my brain stopped working for several hours.  Not pretty.

I must tell you, first of all, that the professional astronomical community does not recognize organizations like Starregistry.  Only you, your girlfriend, and the Starregistry company will ever know about that star being "named" after her.  Sorry.  I still think it's sort of romantic, but unfortunately this is the AllExperts Ask an Astronomer board, not Ask a Poet, or Ask a Philosopher.  So, I must tell you that astronomers will never officially recognize your eponymous girlfriend's star as such.

OK, now that I've told you that unwelcome news (sorry)...

You might not know that RA stands for "Right Ascension" and D stands for "Declination."  They are the celestial equivalents of longitude and latitude, respectively.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_ascension

Now, try this website to find a map of your sky.  You need to find your local earthly latitude and longitude.  Lisbon is at about 39 north latitude, 9 west longitude.

http://www.fourmilab.ch/yoursky/

I hope this is helpful.  Keep Looking Up,
-Ed