La Superba - carbon star

[lukebl]

Hi all,

I don't normally image just stars, but thought I have a go at this one. It's Y Canum Venaticorum, one of the brightest giant carbon stars in the sky and incredibly red, particularly amongst the bluer stars around it. named 'La Superba' by the 19th century astronomer Angelo Secchi. Apparently it's also one of the coolest stars known and so big that it would reach beyond the orbit of Mars. It's around 5th magnitude, so there's a bit of internal reflections, but I still quite like it. I haven't messed with the colour or saturation. That's how it came out!

SXVF_H9 cam, 250mm f/4.7 Newtonian

20 x 60s each RGB

[Planetesimal]

Nice one, I love carbon stars! It's always great to see stellar images - this hobby is called "star" gazing after all...

Herschel's garnet in Cepheus is one of my favourite red stars; it's one of the largest stars in the whole universe... while La Superba is about 215 solar radii, the Garnet has been measured at up to 1,400 solar radii!

[ollypenrice]

Splendid. I remember chancing upon this while aimlessly sweeping the sky. The colour is staggering.

Fine image.

Olly

[Macavity]

Quite (i.e. very) Beautiful! I must admit, I have occasionally chased RED stars - Mu Cephi, the "Garnet Star" etc.

Mine will not be a quantitative study, but developing a preliminary interest in Amateur Spectroscopy (qv) too...

[JamesF]

Fantastic colour in that image. I think sometimes imaging just single stars is worth it

James

[Andrew*]

Superb!!

one to add to the observing list

[ollypenrice]

Fantastic colour in that image. I think sometimes imaging just single stars is worth it

James

It can be very difficult as well. Greg Parker/Noel Carboni have done some crackers recently. They published a small tight Rigel. Try it if you like a challenge!!

Olly

[Pete Presland]

very nice image lovely colour, i know the diffraction spikes are not to everyones taste but i love them! i think they just add a little more drama to the image