Getting Sirius about “The Dog star”

It has been a while since I have posted a article on a star and I thought now would be a good time.While I had the scope out the other night (finally! ) I decided to get a shot of Sirius a.k.a the Dog star (which is Orion the hunters larger dog) .Sirius is best viewed during the winter months thru early spring in the northern hemisphere.It is a blue-white star that packs a Sirius bite….hahahahaha!!.Sorry,I couldn’t help myself!!!.Located in the constellation Canis Major,Sirius is only 8.6 light years distant.Being twice as  massive than our own sun,Sirius is also 20 times brighter at a visual mag of -1.46 and almost twice as hot at 9800 K,hence it’s blue-white color.
Sirius is part of a large asterism,which is called the Winter Triangle, along with two other stars… Betelgeuse in Orion and Procyon in Orions smaller dog,which is called Canis Minor.
Only to be seen with a telescope,Sirius also has a companion star which is called Sirius B *see image below*,a small white dwarf, and is  nearly 10,000 times fainter.This does not mean that Sirius B is cooler than Sirius A.Sirius B, in fact is much hotter at approximately 23,000k and is thought to have been slightly larger than Sirius A at one time in it’s life.This leads me to believe that Sirius B is the older of the two?!.

Image was at prime focus taken with a 10″ Meade LXD75sn and Pentax istDs DSLR.Skies were clear and the temp was in the mid teens F.

Information credit: Stars

Image credit: Andrew