| Name: | Rigel |
| Other names: | SAO 131907 Beta Orionis |
| Description: | Double Star |
| Ascension: | 5h 14.538m |
| Declanation: | -8° 12.100' |
| Apparent diameter: | separation 9.5 arcsec |
| Constellation: | Orion |
| Magnitude: | 0.18 & 6.18 |
| Distance: | 775 light years |
| Equipment: | ETX90 icx424 |
| Date / Time UTC: | 15 january 2005 19:15 |
| Stacked : | 20 of 60 |
| Exposure time: | AVI |
| Location: | The Hague, The Netherlands |
| Other info: | In the constellation Orion. A very bright white and
blue double with component magnitudes: A-0.18, B-6.68. Separation:
9.5 arc-seconds. Rigel is accompanied by a fairly bright, seventh magnitude companion nine seconds of arc away. Normally such a star is easily found in a small telescope, but Rigel's brilliance nearly overwhelms it. The companion, at least 50 times farther from Rigel than Pluto is from the Sun, is itself double, the components much fainter and much less massive class B main sequence stars that are fusing hydrogen into helium. With an original mass around 17 times that of the Sun, Rigel is in the process of dying, and is most likely fusing internal helium into carbon and oxygen. The star seems fated to explode, though it might just make it under the wire as a rare heavy oxygen-neon white dwarf. |
© Job Gehéniau
http://www.jgeheniau.nl/etx90/astronomy2.html