Binary star Cor Caroli crossing the night sky in real time

This is Cor Caroli, a binary star system about 110 light years away, named in honour of Charles I. Binary stars orbit each other in much the same way as the planets orbit the Sun in our solar system, each star tied to the other by the immense force of gravity produced by the other.

The movement across the frame is the path the star system is tracing across the night sky as the Earth rotates beneath; the telescope and camera are both stationary (apart from the tiny slew at the beginning which is a nudge!)

The blurring you can see is not the camera but atmospheric distortion (the same thing that makes the stars twinkle!). The star system actually looks this twinkly when looking directly through the eyepiece.

Filmed on 1 March afocally with a Cyber-shot DSC-H55 through an Explorer 130P.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• binary star
• astrophotography
• space
• telescope
• science
• stars