Betelgeuse

Designation: α Orionis
Hemisphere: Northern
Constellation: Orion
Distance: 548 light years
Object type: Red Supergiant

Description

Betelgeuse is a massive red supergiant star: over 750 times as large as the Sun, it is in fact one of the largest stars visible to the naked eye. It is found some 548 light years from the Sun, in the constellation Orion, of which is the second brightest star after Rigel. It forms one of the three vertices of the Winter Triangle asterism, in combination with Sirius and Procyon.

Designed as α Orionis, it is a variable star with an average apparent magnitude of about 0.6, which makes it the tenth-brightest star in the night sky. Betelgeuse is estimated to be less than 10 million years old and is expected to end its evolution with a supernova explosion, sometime within the next 100,000 years.

Equipment

Mount: Celestron Evolution
Main Telescope: William Optics ZS73EDii
Main camera: ZWO ASI183MC-Pro
Main camera filter: Optolong UV/IR Cut

Acquisition details

Total integration time: 15 minutes
Acquisition software: SharpCap Pro
Processing software: PixInsight
Location: Luxembourg

Full size image