If you are the first to find it you can win a trip to Starr Observatory for a weekend. Includes luxurious accomodation at the Tenby Homestead (1/2 star rating), all meals (if you can catch it) and transport from Sydney (may have to nurse 2 nervous cocker spaniels during the trip, (they do not get car sick too much). Highlights include an alnight session with Starry (night star tour that is), and burr hunting.
Proxima Centauri has been found below by Geoff Mutton, congratulations. That was too easy
Proxima Centauri is a an M5.5 class star or red dwarf star. It is the closest known star to us other than our own sun at a distance of 4.22 light years.
It is thought to be part of a triple star system, the other two being alpha centauri double. The 2 primary members are relatively close at 23AU distance between each other. Proxima lies 13000 AU distant from alpha. It is thought to be part of the system as it has a similar proper motion to alpha.
From our point of view proxima is not in the same field of view as alpha even using binoculars.
Even though it is the closest, it cannot be seen with the naked eye. Its apparent magnitude is 11. It is dim because of its low mass, approximately 0.1 solar masses. If it took the position of our sun, it would not be much brighter than the full moon appears to us.
This picture was taken at prime focus with a F/6.3 focal reducer using a 14" Meade LX200GPS Telescope and a canon 300D camera near Coonabarabran NSW Australia on 11/03/2005. The photo is made up of 5 30 second exposues equivalent to an exposure time of 2.5 minutes. Notice the vignetting. Processing was done using Maxim DL software..
