Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Camelopardalis (Cam)  ·  Contains:  9 Cam  ·  9 alf Cam  ·  HD28122  ·  HD28168  ·  HD28342  ·  HD28401  ·  HD28495  ·  HD29147  ·  HD29202  ·  HD29330  ·  HD29400  ·  HD29949  ·  HD30164  ·  HD30376  ·  HD30555  ·  HD30615  ·  HD30735  ·  HD31675  ·  HD31676  ·  HD32715  ·  HD33231  ·  HD33275  ·  HD34200  ·  NGC 1569  ·  The star α Cam
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Plowing Through Space, 



    
        

            Andre Vilhena
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Plowing Through Space

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
Plowing Through Space, 



    
        

            Andre Vilhena
Powered byPixInsight

Plowing Through Space

Acquisition details

Dates:
Dec. 1, 2022 ·  Jan. 2, 2023
Frames:
Astronomik H-alpha CCD 6nm 36 mm: 223×300(18h 35′)
Optolong Blue 36 mm: 60×20(20′)
Optolong Green 36 mm: 60×20(20′)
Optolong Red 36 mm: 60×20(20′)
Integration:
19h 35′
Avg. Moon age:
9.50 days
Avg. Moon phase:
71.07%
Bortle Dark-Sky Scale:
8.00

RA center: 04h54m15s.98

DEC center: +66°2127.3

Pixel scale: 6.273 arcsec/pixel

Orientation: -0.943 degrees

Field radius: 3.238 degrees

WCS transformation: thin plate spline

More info:Open 

Resolution: 3100x2050

File size: 8.2 MB

Locations: Barcarena, ,, Portugal

Data source: Backyard

Description

Alpha Camelopardis (a-Cam), the blue bright star right in the center of this image, is an O-type supergiant star easily visible to the naked eye. It is about 40 times as as massive and 30 times as large (radius) than our Sun, with a surface temperature of 30,000 K. It is moving quite fast, at over 60 km per second, making it a runaway star, likely from the nearby NGC 1502 open cluster. Why would that happen? It is uncertain but gravitational interactions with other stars in the progenitor cluster or a nearby supernova may be the cause.
a-Cam is also producing massive supersonic stellar winds, which is confined into a bow shock due to the compression of the interstellar medium, in this case the glowing hydrogen alpha cloud being crossed; this effect is seen by the bubble enclosing the star, which has a radius of about 10 light years. In a way, like a vessel plowing through a cosmic sea. 

While not the most eye-catching photo I’ve taken, it is an interesting phenomena occurring in a fairly void area of the night sky, it posed a challenge to photograph due to nebula faintness.

Comments

Revisions

  • Plowing Through Space, 



    
        

            Andre Vilhena
    Original
  • Final
    Plowing Through Space, 



    
        

            Andre Vilhena
    B

Sky plot

Sky plot

Histogram

Plowing Through Space, 



    
        

            Andre Vilhena

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