Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Leo (Leo)  ·  Contains:  32 alf Leo  ·  IC 591  ·  Regulus  ·  The star Regulus (αLeo)
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Regulus in Leo, Matt Harbison
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Regulus in Leo

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
Regulus in Leo, Matt Harbison
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Regulus in Leo

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Description

Regulus (the star) in the constellation Leo is accompanied in view by the galaxy UGC 5470. This tiny blue fuzz you see is a dwarf galaxy- Leo 1 or UGC5470/PGC 29488, and is sometimes called the "Regulus Dwarf".

Regulus, while being a blue/white main sequence star like our own, rotates rapidly taking only 15-16 earth hours to complete a rotation. This increased rotation and it's size (and possibly other forces unknown to me) have caused it to become almost egg-shaped. While filling my cameras sensor, appearing to be one star, it is actually at least a quadruple system with four stars in it's grasp. It is roughly 3.5 times the size of Sol and has a luminosity of 240 times more. It is 77.5 light years from the Earth.

I first observed this star in the spring of 2017 with my friends and fellow Barnard Astronomical Society of Chattanooga members, Ralph McConnell and Harold Harris while participating in one of Ralph's monthly star hopping challenges from the Barnard Astronomical Society of Chattanooga’s monthly newsletter. I've just now gotten around to turning the camera on it for a few months.

Captured in Marathon, Texas at MARIO Telescopes LLC.

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Regulus in Leo, Matt Harbison