A closeup of Rigel in Orion, taken in moonlight, with the 130mm f/6 apo refractor. This is a stack of six 2-minute exposures and three 30-second exposures to reduce the core brilliance, with the short exposures blended in with a luminosity mask. All with the Canon 6D MkII at ISO 800. The diffraction spikes were added with Astronomy Tools Photoshop actions.
Alpha Centauri, or Rigil Kentaurus, the brightest star in Centaurus and the nearest star system to the Sun. It is a pair of Sun-like stars 4 light years away. This is a superb double star but is not resolved here. The star cluster NGC 5617 appears to the right of Alpha. The area is also rich in dark nebulas. High haze added some natural star glows here — no filter was used. I shot this April 3, 2016 from the Tibuc Cottage, Coonabarabran, NSW, Australia using the 77mm f/4 astrographic refractor and filter-modified Canon 5D MkII, for a stack of 4 x 5 minute exposures at ISO 1600.
The red carbon star R Leporis in a telescopic close-up. R Lep is also called Hind’s Crimson Star. This is a stack of 8 x 2- minute exposures with the Canon EOS Ra at ISO 800 and through the SharpStar HNT 150 Hyperbolic Newtonian Astrograph at f/2.8.
