Orange Supergiant Star Shines Through Hazy Nebula in Amazing Photo

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Orange Supergiant Star Shines Through Hazy Nebula in Amazing Photo
SPACE.com
by Nina Sen, SPACE.com Contributor  6 hours ago

 

Massive star Xi Cygni, also known as 62 Cygni or ? Cyg, glows orange toward the center of the photo with the gas and dust of the North American Nebula in the background. Jeff Johnson captured this image on Dec. 23, 2013 from his backyard in Las



Orange supergiant star, Xi Cygni, beams through the red haze of the North American Nebula's "west coast," in this stunning night sky photo recently sent in to Space.com.

Amateur astronomer Jeff Johnson captured this image on Dec. 23 from his backyard in Las Cruces, N.M.  The star Xi Cygni, also known as 62 Cygni or ξ Cyg, glows orange toward the center of the photo with the gas and dust of the North American Nebula in the background.

The North America Nebula is an emission nebula 100 light-years in diameter located in the constellation Cygnus — roughly 1,800 light-years away. A light-year is the distance light travels in one year, or about 6 trillion miles (10 trillion kilometers). The nebula, also known as NGC 7000, takes its name from a supposed resemblance to the continent.

Johnson used a Takahashi FS-60C @ f/6.2 telescope, QSI 540wsg @ -15C camera, Takahashi EM200 Temma II mount, Astrodon Ha (3nm), Astrodon Tru-Balance I-Series LRGB Gen 2 filters, and SX Lodestar guider (settings: 4x15m Ha; 2x5m ea RGB (all bin1x1); AstroArt5, CS4 (cropped, 10xdarks/flats/fdarks/bias) to capture the photo.


http://news.yahoo.com/orange-supergiant-star-shines-hazy-nebula-amazing-photo-120510522.html