GAMMA CRUCIS - STAR

CRUX

 (ra: 12.31,47/ dec -57:10)

March  2010, Home Backyard - Martínez, Buenos Aires, Argentina

DATA

TYPE: Star

Visual Brightness: 1.59

Apparent Diameter: 113 solar masses

DISTANCE: 88 lights years

IMAGE INFORMATION

SCOPE: Celestron C8 SCT working at f6 (roughly)

CAMERA: SXVF H9

GUIDING: William Optics Zenithstar 66 with WO 0.8 x fr/ff

IMAGE ACQUISITION: AstroArt 3.0 - Control Interface 3.72 plug in

FILTERS: Astronomik Type II - Atik Filter Wheel

SKY CONDITIONS: urban skies - transparency and seeing bad

EXPOSURES: LRGB (5,5,5,5)

PROCESSING: Median Combine in Images Plus, CCD Sharp, Photoshop CS2

OBJECT DESCRIPTION AND IMAGE SESSION

Gamma Crucis is a cool red giant star. It may have as much as three times the Solar mass, 113 times its diameter and about 140 the Solar brightness. The star is the third-brightest star in Crux (the Southern Cross) and one of the brightest stars in the nighttime sky.

Its +6.4 magnitude white companion star lies about 2 arc minutes away at an angle of 128 degrees from the main star, and can be observed with binoculars. But it is only an optical companion, which is about 400 light years distant from Earth. The color of Gamma Crucis A is a prominent reddish-orange, well in keeping with its spectral classification.