aimed at Wolf 359 (Halifax)

I asked the Burke-Gaffney Observatory to image Wolf 359, a red dwarf star in Leo with very high proper motion.

Luminance only, 1 second subexposures, 12 stacked shots. FITS Liberator, Paint.NET. North is up; east is left.

Whoa. Faint. Even though it's only 7.9 light-years away. I should have shot longer... Can you see it?! I believe the target is not dead centre; rather, it is the medium bright star near but right of centre.

Also, this star is best viewed in February and March, after 1:00. Goes over 45° in elevation. It was around 44 for me on this occasion. Conditions weren't great. The ECMWF indicator said there was 5% cloud. Transparency and seeing from the Clear Sky Chart were, respectively, average and poor (2/5).

The plan is to image this star annually for a little while. With a proper motion against the background stars of 4.7 arcseconds per year, I should be able to see the shift...

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Shot again on 25 May. Quadrupled the exposure. But, surprisingly the results were no better. Worse even. Issues with the camera sensor and/or the stacking algorithms.

Captures:

22 Mar 2023
4 Mar 2022
18 Feb 2021
12 Mar 2020
22 May 2019

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Wikipedia link: Wolf 359.