Sirius

Target details

Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky. It's actually a pair: Sirius A, a main-sequence star about twice the Sun's mass and 25 times as bright, and Sirius B, a faint white dwarf. They orbit each other every 50 years, between 8.2 and 31.5 AU apart. Sirius looks so bright partly because it's close – just 8.6 light-years away – and it's still edging nearer, so it will brighten slightly over the next 60,000 years. The system is 200–300 million years old. Sirius B was once the bigger star; it used up its fuel, swelled into a red giant and collapsed into a white dwarf around 120 million years ago.

Capture details

Data captured 24 January, 2021.

17x 30 second exposures with Red filter.
14x 30 second exposures with Green filter.
16x 30 second exposures with Blue filter.

Total Exposure: 23 minutes.

Equipment details

Skywatcher Quattro 200 CF
NEQ6 Pro
Atik 460EX Mono
Skywatcher ST-80
QHY5L-II

Processing details

This image was processed in Pixinsight & Lightroom.
Calibration and Stacking in Pixinsight.
Channel Combination - To create RGB image.
Histogram Transofrmation - To stretch the image.

Export as JPEG and import into Lightroom.

Boost Contrast (+25)
Boost Saturation (+100)

Export final JPEG for upload