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Orbital Motion of Sirius B, myronwasiuta

Orbital Motion of Sirius B

Orbital Motion of Sirius B, myronwasiuta

Orbital Motion of Sirius B

Description

Using the 0.4m PROMPT-5 telescope at CTIO, I acquired 5  1/4 sec exposures of Sirius A/B with a blue filter in April 2018. I did the same again in April, 2022. Combining the  2 sets of 5 images into single frames  resulted in two frames which when animated clearly show the orbital motion of the white dwarf companion Sirius B about the systems common center of gravity. By referencing the images to a field star, the systems proper motion can also be seen. While this project took 4 years to create, it only required 2.5 seconds of telescope time! My friend Boris Starosta created these animated gifs from my images.

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