Preparation for Sirius B - Rigel

[Peter_D]

I am going to try and capture Sirius B when Sirius gets higher for me in the new year. Yesterday, I decided to set up my gear and try out on Rigel - it's was still only at around 20 degrees elevation (this is around the maximum elevation Sirius rises for me too). 

I used my Zwo asi224mc camera, unbarlowed in an Orion Optics 140 OMC Maksutov. This was mounted on a Celestron SE Mount.

Exposure: 2.5 ms, Gain = 500. 5000 images, best 10% used. When I switched off tracking Rigel drifted to the top right corner of the frame.

Processed the same as I do planetary: PIPP, Autostekkert!3, Registax6. Rigel B was indistinct before sharpening but sharpening brought it out in the image.

Clear skies

Peter

 

 

[Nik271]

It may be worth using a Barlow for larger image scale, this will put more separation in pixels between the glare of the primary and the dim companion. Currently the separations of Rigel AB and Sirius AB pairs are very similar about 10''

 

[Peter_D]

Thanks, good suggestion!