Alpha Centauri Triple Star System

The star Alpha Centauri.

Alpha Centauri is a triple star system consisting of Alpha Centauri A, Alpha Centauri B, and Proxima Centauri. The bright star, centered in the image is Alpha Centauri A. Alpha Centauri B is outside the image frame. Proxima Centauri is in the lower left side of the frame but is so small that it blends in with the densely packed stars in the image.

The Alpha Centauri star system is the star system that is closest to our solar system, 4.4 LY. Alpha Centauri A is a class G star like our Sun. The densely packed stars in the image is the Milky Way. Just below Alpha Centauri A is the star cluster NGC 5617.

As the name indicates, Alpha Centauri is located in the constellation Centaurus, which is only visible in the Southern Hemisphere.

Image processed by Andrew Macica, original data from Telescope Live.

Imaging Details:

Observatory: Heaven's Mirror Observatory, Yass, Australia

Telescope: Takahashi FSQ-106ED

Aperture: 106 mm (4.17 inches), f/3.6

Focal Length: 382 mm (with 0.73x focal reducer)

Camera: FLI ProLine PL16803 CCD

Filters: LRGB

Total Exposure: 0 hours 56 minutes

Image Processing: PixInsight 1.8.9-3 Ripley (x64);

BlurXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator (RC Astro);

Adobe Photoshop 12.5.1;

Adobe Lightroom Classic 14.1.1

Instruction on PixInsight from Adam Block Studios.