Binary Stars

Above Us Only Sky.....

  • Homepage
  • Astronomy & Science
  • Current Affairs
  • Life in General
  • Sceptical Comment
  • Local Comment
  • About

Mar 11: Binary Stars

Astronomy
Lots of clouds lately. Caught up with some nice images of double stars that I had not posted anywhere before.

I went through my collection of images and found several images of excellent double stars that I had not published anywhere until now.

Some may argue that double star images do not have the pizzazz of a galaxy or a nebula - but I beg to differ. The total blackness surrounding these objects is indicative of the absolute wilderness of interstellar space, a vastness where we suddenly encounter not one but two stars attracted to each other and locked in a mutual embrace.


A-Crux

A-Crux is the brightest object in the Southern Cross, at a distance of 325 light years. The two distinguishable stars orbit in over 1500 years. They are of magnitude 1.4 and 2.1 (combined visual magnitude = 0.77) and the brighter star is a spectroscopic binary. A fourth nearby star is believed to orbit the three main components, making it a quadruple star system.


Theta Muscae

Theta Muscae is a very tight visual binary star system, requiring a telescope to split, with an angular separation of 5.3". The combined magnitude is 5.4 (5.7 and 7.3). Distance 108 light-years. The brighter star may be a Wolf-Rayet star.


Epsilon Norma

Epsilon Normae is approximately 600 light-years distant. This is a visual binary star system with a combined magnitude of 4.5. The two components are magnitudes 4.8 (G8 class) and 7.5 (F9 class), with an angular separation of 22.8". Both main components are themselves spectroscopic binaries, making this a quadruple star system.


Beta Muscae

With a combined visual magnitude of 3.1, the Beta Muscae system is 340 light-years away. It has an orbital period of 194 years and both components are main sequence stars. The individual magnitudes are 3.0 and 4.0. Separation is a very close 1.22".


Gamma Volans

Gamma Volans is a visual binary star system of combined magnitude 3.6. The two main components are class G8 (mag 3.8) and F4 (mag 5.4); and require a telescope to split them. Gamma-1 is an Orange Giant. Gamma-2 is described as a yellow-white main sequence star but appears more blue in this image.


k-Puppis

Both components of k-Puppis (not Kappa) are B class stars. Their magnitudes are similar too (4.5 and 4.6), for a combined brightness of 3.8. They are approximately 10" apart and about 460 light years away from us.

All images were taken with my Meade LX-90 f/10 telescope and Canon 60D camera, the images were cropped of much of the surrounding blackness to reveal the star system's true beauty at the centre. Please click on the images to view them in their enlarged format.

Posted by roger in Astronomy

Trackbacks
Trackback specific URI for this entry

No Trackbacks

Comments
Display comments as (Linear | Threaded)

No comments


The author does not allow comments to this entry

Above us only sky...

The glory of the 'heavens' above us are real, their starry splendour is visible to those who look up; but the glory of 'Heaven' is a sad delusion of human minds.
This is the personal blog site of an atheist astronomer.

Wise words

"Being an Atheist is like being the only sober driver in the car.... and nobody will let you drive."
Anon

Categories

  • XML ABOUT (4)
  • XML ASTRONOMY & SCIENCE
  • XML Astro Forum: MAS (31)
  • XML Astronomers (5)
  • XML Astronomy (56)
  • XML Camera & tripod (41)
  • XML Citizen Science (9)
  • XML Climate Change (13)
  • XML Cosmology (5)
  • XML Dharawal (2)
  • XML Extra-terrestrials (11)
  • XML Lightning (5)
  • XML LX-90 Notes (11)
  • XML Polar Aligning (7)
  • XML Science (2)
  • XML CAMPBELLTOWN
  • XML Bigot watch (12)
  • XML Campbelltown Comment (13)
  • XML CURRENT AFFAIRS
  • XML Australia (33)
  • XML Covid-19 (5)
  • XML Human rights (2)
  • XML International (8)
  • XML Same-Sex Marriage (22)
  • XML LIFE
  • XML Football (13)
  • XML Life at work (6)
  • XML Life in general (25)
  • XML Life in the Sixties (3)
  • XML Life under the knife (4)
  • XML Photography (7)
  • XML What cheeses me off (10)
  • XML SCEPTICAL
  • XML Baloney watch (7)
  • XML Clear thinking (28)
  • XML Decline of Religion (29)
  • XML Ethics (11)
  • XML God delusions (40)
  • XML Vatican watch (26)

All categories

Syndicate This Blog

  • XML RSS 0.91 feed
  • XML RSS 1.0 feed
  • XML RSS 2.0 feed
  • ATOM/XML ATOM 1.0 feed
  • XML RSS 2.0 Comments

Blog Administration

Open login screen
 

Layout by Andreas Viklund | Serendipity template by Carl