wpo
- constellations in invisible infra-red
light
Solar system
page
2006
Aug: These shots are via my Starlight
Xpress MX9 CCD + 17mm fl f/4 lens + BDB IR transmitting filter and
cover a ~10o x 7o field. The filter appears black eg visually
opaque but most astro-CCDs have good sensitivity to these wavelengths.
The setup is piggybacked on my Meade LX200 and was prompted by the current
[Aug 06] rare ~mv 3.8 brightness of chi Cygni that S&T's John Bortle
quotes "as the brightest for 148 years" and the brightest
star in Cygnus at IR wavelengths! - see S&T's
homepage for my IR Cygnus image.
Most
of the recorded stars, beyond the brightest, prove to be visually faint
red stars of spectral class K and M - chi Cyg is an M variant at type S
- its spectrum with beta 1+2 Cyg [=Albireo] for comparison is shown adjacent.
More recent shots include Lyra in both visual and IR highlighting stellar magnitude differences and Delphinus + Sagitta in IR. All these shots processed to remove background and just hi-light the stars except Aquila/Scutum 10min shot of the Milky Way in IR light.
Here is a list of
bright red stars and faint red stars
eg mostly M-type and carbon stars but with some exceptions.
images& text copyright Maurice Gavin 2006