Alpha Centauri
Zooming in on the nearest star system to the sun.
Below, Alpha Centauri is at the centre of this panoramic view of the southern Milky Way, with the Southern Cross at right.
Below, an image made at a longer focal length. Alpha Centauri is again at centre, with, at right, Beta Centauri or Hadar.
Click on the image to toggle a rectangle indicating the field of view of the next zoom level below.
Click on the image to toggle a rectangle indicating the field of view of the next zoom level below.
Click on the picture to toggle a negative image of Alpha Centauri's A and B components lost in the glare of this 2,800mm focal length exposure made to record surrounding much fainter field stars.
Below, the AB pair at very high magnification. The separation at the time (2020) was 5.9 arcseconds.
Click here for a video (in the Image Animations section) animating the above imagery.
Below is a two-frame looping animation of the AB pair with B's apparent orbital path shown, showing B's motion between 2011 and 2020. The orbital period is about 80 years.
Below is a detail from the imagery above showing named open star clusters and a vividly red planetary nebula lying to the right of Alpha Centauri in the images above – click on the image to toggle a key.
