• Constellation: Canes Venatici
  • Right Ascension: 12h 45m 07.83s
  • Declination: +45° 26′ 24.92″
  • Distance: 1,000

Other names for La Superba are Y CVn, and HD 110914. La Superba is a late stage red giant star, with a mass of three times that of our Sun, but with its outer layers extending out to a radius of 2.2 Astronomical units (1 AU is the distance of the Earth to the Sun). So if La Superba was at the same location as our Sun, it's outer layers would extend out to Mars. Like many red giants, it is also a variable star changing in brightness by around 1 magnitude over a 160 day cycle.

It is also a carbon star, with large amounts of carbon molecules in its outer layers that absorb blue and violet light, giving the star a deep reddish color. Eventually it will shed its outer layers and create a planetary nebula, while the core becomes a white dwarf star that is no longer fusing atoms and slowly cools over trillions of years.

The background contains an large number of barely visible and very distant galaxy that are highlighted with plate-solving the image.

 

There is also an interesting video highlighting the differences in sizes among stars, and this one includes La Superba to give an interesting view of the scale of it.

 

  • Telescope: EDT 80mm Reftactor
  • Camera: ZWO 1600 MM