ScienceDownEast | ScienceDownEast Astrophotography | Deep Sky | Antares | Antares Annotated

Antares is a bright reddish star in the constellation Scorpius deriving its name from the Greek "Rival of Mars". "It has the Bayer designation α Scorpii, which is Latinised to Alpha Scorpii. Often referred to as "the heart of the scorpion", Antares is flanked by σ Scorpii and τ Scorpii near the center of the constellation. Distinctly reddish when viewed with the naked eye, Antares is a slow irregular variable star that ranges in brightness from an apparent visual magnitude of +0.6 down to +1.6. It is on average the fifteenth-brightest star in the night sky. Antares is the brightest and most evolved stellar member of the Scorpius–Centaurus association, the nearest OB association to the Sun. It is located about 170 parsecs from Earth at the rim of the Upper Scorpius subgroup, and is illuminating the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex in its foreground. Classified as spectral type M1.5Iab-Ib, Antares is a red supergiant, a large evolved massive star and one of the largest stars visible to the naked eye." - Wikipedia

Total image time was 10 minutes.

Note: click on the image to view it at the full resolution of the uploaded image, then click again for actual size.

Exposure	10 x 1 min.
ISO	3200
Camera	Nikon D600 [6615 x 4016]
Optics	70 mm Nikkor lens at F5.6
Guiding	None
Controller	Benro Polaris
Filter	None
Location	Kejimkjuik National Park, Nova Scotia.
Date	2024-06-05
Processing	Processed in PixInsight

---