Finding Sirius through my telescope.

420 frames at 90% best quality in Registax.

1150 frames at 85% best quality in Registax.

Denoise-dering.

Sirius, is one star that you can not confuse it in the night sky in the cold nights of winter. You can not pass it once it appears because it is the brightest star , brightness which can be surpassed but only by the Sun and the Moon (or Venus , Jupiter and Mars , only when they are at their maximum brightness ) .

Sirius is called the Dog Star , and is twice the size of our Sun, and 20 times brighter than this . It is so called because it is the brightest star in the constellation Canis Majoris ( Big Dog ), which is the dog of Orion the hunter ( Orion constellation ) .

In 1862 , it was discovered that Sirius is actually a binary star system , the second one is behind it and was called Sirius B. Sirius B , compared to Sirius A, is a white dwarf star , the first discovery of its kind , 10,000 times weaker in brightness .
The two stars ( twins ) , rotate once every 50 years around their common center of mass .

Star: Sirius
Distance: 8.60 light years.
Magnitude: -1.45
Optics: Celestron C8-Newtonian telescope, Plossl 20 mm, 2x Barlow
Mount: CG5 (EQ5)
Camera: Sony CX130
Filter: no
Date: 27/02/2012
Location: Baia Mare, Romania
Processing: Registax, FastStone Image Viewer

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Sirius B pictures through the telescope Observational astronomy

Above, optical aberration or misscollimation causing the elongation of the star observed on the left.

I ran the video presented in the article with Sirius - Sirius the brightest star in the sky Video through telescope , to catch some pictures with the partner star, Sirius B. The video captures were made with Sony Vegas 10, and edited in FastStone.

In the pictures above, binary star system Sirius, is filmed with exposure to 'auto' combined with 'low lux', on the CX130 Sony video camera. On 'auto' mode, the camera could not detect the second star, Sirius B, because of the brightness of the host star, but in the pictures below, I've set the camera to a small exposure to reduce the amount of light of the star Sirius A that blocks the detection of all that is around it, and finally, Sirius B, has appeared in the images. I dont think we can observe with the naked eye through the eyepiece Sirius B, but only with a camcorder or camera to adjust the exposure.

In the pictures above, we find some images of the telescope's optical aberration. On the left side of the star A, we see an extension of it, and at first sight it made ​​me think that there, Sirius B is hiding. But when I continued to study the video, I saw that when I reduced the exposure, Sirius B was actually on the right side of Sirius A.

The atmosphere was loaded and of course the stars spectrum in each photo is different, but that big bright spot on the right star, has always been there, and so, undoubtedly, in the images below, are catched Sirius both stars.

The video of these video captures are here: Sirius the brightest star in the sky Video through telescope .

Above, Sirius binary system, with Sirius A in the center, and Sirius B smaller right.

Telescope that I use to shoot through it, is a netonian reflector from Celestron, with a mirror of 203 mm, or 8 ". I never managed to look through another reflector with the same mirror size, such as Meade 8-inch telescope LS with LightSwitch Technology telescope, which is lining up by a single push of a button.
In astronomical observations is difficult to achieve high quality astroimaging if not put continuous effort to enjoy the results.

Photographer: Victor Lupu
Optical Telescope Celestron C8" Newtonian, super plossl 20mm, 2x Barlow
Mount: CG5 (EQ5)
Camera: Sony CX130
Video mode: 1920x1080 progressive
Filter: no
Date: 27/02/2012
Location: Baia Mare, Romania
Processing and Editing - Sony Vegas 10, Faststone

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Sirius the brightest star in the sky Video through telescope

Sirius is the brightest star in the sky. Has an apparent magnitude of -1.46 visually, and is almost two times brighter than Canopus, the second in brightness. Sirius is part of Big Dog constellation, is from 8.60 ± 0.04 light years from us, and has a rotation of 16 km / s

The name "Sirius" is derived from ancient Greek Seirios ("brightness"). What our eye perceives as a single star is actually a binary star: Sirius A and Sirius B A1V (A) / DA2 (B). These two stars are visible in the video below. In my video, I think the B star is on the left side of the A, because the elongation is repetitive on the same spot, over and over.
Distance that separates the two stars, varies between 8.1 and 31.5 AU.
Sirius appears brighter, because its proximity to Earth. Sirius binary system is one of Earth's closest neighbors. Sirius A is about twice as massive as the Sun and has an absolute visual magnitude of 1.42. Is 25 times brighter than the Sun, but has a lower luminosity than other bright stars such as Canopus or Rigel.

The system is old, between 200 and 300 million years. It was originally composed of two bright bluish stars. Sirius B, consumed its resources, and has become a red giant and threw up its outer layers becoming a white dwarf around 120 million years ago.

Sirius can be seen from almost every inhabited region of the Earth's surface. The best time of year to see it, is around 1 January.

The two stars, Sirius A and Sirius B, revolve around each other are constantly exchanging particles between them. Due to higher density and magnetic field, Sirius B takes the lion's part, taking gases and materials from her host star.

Every 49.9 years, Sirius A and B, come as close together as their orbits allow, and creating huge magnetic storms between them. The more closer to each other, the more they begin to rotate faster around each other, and eventually change places.

The video captures of this video can be seen here: Sirius B pictures through the telescope Observational astronomy .



Video: Victor Lupu
Optical Telescope Celestron C8" Newtonian, super plossl 20mm, 2x Barlow
Mount: CG5 (EQ5)
Camera: Sony CX130
Video mode: 1920x1080 progressive
Filter: no
Date: 27/02/2012
Location: Baia Mare, Romania
Processing and Editing - Sony Vegas 10

Read more »