- Constellation: Hercules
- Right Ascension: 18h 00m 38.895
- Declination: +29° 34′ 18.92
- Distance: 92 ly
- Apparent Magnitude: 7
HD164595 is a G type star located in the constellation of Hercules. It is thought to have at least one planet roughly a mass of 16 times of Earth. It's claim to fame came in 2016 when a Russian team detected a signal from that area of the sky in 2015. No other signals have been detected. It is though what they found was a signal from a uncategorized Russian satellite. Maybe next time?
- Details
- Category: Stars
- Telescope: EDT 80mm Reftactor
- Camera: Atik 314l+
- Constellation: Sagittarius
Baade's window is area of lower amounts of interstellar gas and dust towards the nucleus of the Milky Way Galaxy. First noticed by Walter Baade, this area along with a few others offers a glimpse of the nucleus of our galaxy that is normally blocked by interstellar gas and dust.
- Details
- Category: Stars
- Telescope: EDT 80mm Reftactor
- Camera: Atik 314l+
- Constellation: Ophiuchus
- Right Ascension: 17h 57m 48.49803s
- Declination: +04° 41′ 36.2072"
- Distance: 6 ly
- Apparent Magnitude: 9.5
Barnard's Star is a low mass red dwarf star located in the constellation of Ophiuchus. It is an old star at an estimated age of 7 to 12 billions years of age. Red dwarfs such as this one can "burn" for a trillion years. Even at it's advanced age, it can produce flares, which are random, dramatic increases of brightness lasting many minutes.
Barnard's Star displays the highest proper motion of any of the stars due to its closeness at only 6 light years and its actual motion through space. It's movement is quite noticeable even at a years interval.
It's motion will bring it to within 3.75 light years distance from Earth at around 11,800 AD.
The animated image gif shows the motion over a two year span taken a few weeks ago, and summer two years ago.
- Details
- Category: Stars
Read more: Barnard's Star August 2016
- Telescope: EDT 80mm Reftactor
- Camera: Atik 314l+
- Constellation: Cygnus
- Right Ascension: 20h 06m 15.4527s
- Declination: +44° 27′ 24.791″
- Distance: 1,470 ly
- Apparent Magnitude: 11.7
KIC 8462852 is still in the news. KIC 8462852 is a F class star located in the constellation of Cygnus. At a magnitude 11.7, its only visible in telescopes, and is located some 1480 light years away. Often called Tabby's star after Tabetha Boyajian, the lead author on a paper investigating its unusual light curve. The star's unusual light curve was first discovered by citizen scientists as part of the Planet Hunters project examining data from the Kepler space telescope.
The light curve shows small random dips in brightness and a large dip in brightness in what appears to be around a 750 day cycle. The large dip can dim the star as much as 22%, which would take a very large object dimming almost half the star.
- Details
- Category: Stars
- Telescope: EDT 80mm Reftactor
- Camera: Atik 314l+
- Constellation: Aquila
- Right Ascension: 19h 11m 49.56s
- Declination: +04° 58′ 57.8"
- Distance: 18,000 ly
- Apparent Magnitude: 13.0 - 17.3
Deep in the star fields of Aquila lies SS 433 aka V1343 Aquilae. Discovered in 1977, researchers noticed spectral shifts alternating between red and blue shifts. The star is also embedded in a supernova remnant, and is also a powerful producer of x-Rays.
The star system consists of an A type star orbiting either a neutron star or a black hole. The companion star loses material to the other object forming an accretion disc that is subject to extreme heating as it spirals in. In the process giving off intense x-rays and jets of material above and below the accretion disc. These jets precess around in a period of 163 days, and travel at 26% the speed of light.
The two object orbit each other with a period of 13 days and is located 18,000 light years away. Astrophysicists call the object a micro-quasar.
I also preformed a photometric observation and came up with a magnitude of 14.46 in the "v" band and uploaded it to AAVSO.
300 second exposures through R/G/B filters with the Ed80CFT refractor for the color image, and a 600 second exposure through a V filter for the photometric observation.
- Details
- Category: Stars
- Telescope: EDT 80mm Reftactor
- Camera: Atik 314l+
- Constellation: Canis Minor
- Right Ascension: 07h 39m 18.11950s
- Declination: +05° 13′ 29.9552"
- Distance: 11.5 ly
- Apparent Magnitude: 0.34
User Rating: 5 / 5
Procyon lies only 111/2 light years away in the constellation of Canis Minor, Due to its being a spectral type F5 white main sequence star, and its nearness to Earth, it is the 8th brightest star in the night sky at magnitude of 0.34. The name comes from ancient Greek that means "before the dog" which refers to the star Sirius, which was often called the dog star. To viewers in the northern hemisphere, Procyon rises in the east before Sirius. Procyon also is a binary star system that contains a white dwarf. Detection of the white dwarf is very difficult due to its faintness next to Procyon's brightness, and its close in orbit that varies from 9 to 21 AU. As you can see in my image, the glare from the star and halos from the color filters would make it impossible to see a white dwarf.
30 second exposures through R/G/B filters with the ED80CFT refractor, and Atik314L+ mono ccd camera.
- Details
- Category: Stars
- Telescope: EDT 80mm Reftactor
- Camera: Atik 314l+
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