Pherked & Pherked Minor (Reg Pratt)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Ursa Minor (UMi) · Contains: 11 UMi · 13 UMi) · 13 gam UMi · HD135694 · Pherkad · Pherkad Major (γ UMi · Pherkad Minor · The star Pherkad · The star Pherkad Minor (11 UMi)

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Pherked & Pherked Minor

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Pherked & Pherked Minor

Gama Ursae Minor (Y UMi) traditionally known as Pherkad is a magnitude +3.05 variable white giant star that makes up the bottom corner of the pan of the constellation Ursa Major (Little Dipper). It is the third brightest star in the constellation and being a variable star, at its peak luminosity puts it into the category of a supergiant. It lies 487 lightyears form Earth and has an effective temperature of 8,280 K Pherked is about 1,100x more luminous than our own Sun.

Next to it sits 11 Ursae Minoris aka Pherked Minor. This magnitude +5.02 red giant star sits a little closer to Earth at 411 lightyears and owes its color so its cooler surface temperatures. In face, it's about 25% cooler than our own sun. As a red giant Pherked Minor is in the final stages of its main sequence. At the end of its life it will turn into a white dwarf and expel its outer layers of gases and leave behind a planetary nebula.

I generally have little interest in imaging stars or constellations but being stuck under magnitude 18 sky during spring leave few viable options for deep sky imaging. I must admit though that this image turned out more interesting than I expected if only for the facts I learned about these two giants after imaging them.

The refractors!
SF Bay Area Imagers

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The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	7728167
PixInsight job	JKCES1ZXD1WCRESWR3KWUE3888S7HZ03
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	15h18m48s.640
RA (top/left)	15h27m21s.000
RA (top/right)	15h10m06s.617
RA (bottom/right)	15h10m39s.523
RA (bottom/left)	15h27m05s.915

Dec (center)	+71°50′43″.63
Dec (top/left)	+72°17′18″.75
Dec (top/right)	+72°16′16″.37
Dec (bottom/right)	+71°22′48″.20
Dec (bottom/left)	+71°23′47″.59

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Pherked & Pherked Minor

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