The Nearest Stars

Several years back I began a photographic survey of the stars closest to our solar system and it has turned out to be a rewarding experience. Our closest stellar neighbors are some of the most interesting objects in the sky and run the gamut from one of the the brightest stars in our night sky to some of the smallest and dimmest of stellar objects in our galaxy, visible to us only due to their proximity.  These nearby stars are also the most favorable place for astronomers to search for planets and extraterrestrial life.

Many of the closest stars are Red Dwarfs (Spectral class M) which are the most numerous but also the smallest and least luminous class of stars.  These stars have masses between 0.5-0.075 Msun, the lower limit being the minimum mass required to sustain hydrogen fusion.  Thus, by examining the distribution of stellar types in our immediate neighborhood we can hope to garner an understanding of the stellar populations in our galaxy as a whole. 

For more information on spectral types see:  Stellar Classification.

Below is a graphic produced by the RECONS project  (REsearch Consortium On Nearby Stars) which shows the distribution of Stellar Spectral Types within 10 parsecs (33 Light-years) of our solar system.

As you will see in the photos below, many of the closest stars are in fact binary or multiple systems so the actual number of stars encountered is larger than a given ranking would at first suggest.  For example; by the time we reach the 10th closest star – Lacaille 9352 at 10.7 LY – there are actually 14 stellar bodies located within that distance not to mention that planets have recently been discovered to orbit several of these stars.

Here is a link to one of the many lists of the Nearest Stars.

Here is a link to the RECONS list of the 100 Nearest Stars.

It should be kept in mind that these lists and the rankings are subject to change as Astronomers are continuing to discover new faint stellar companions or planets to the existing stars on the list as well finding heretofore unknown faint stellar bodies.

In the photos below you will frequently see the orbital radiuses of the binary stars measured in terms of “Astronomical Units” (AU) which is the average distance of the Earth from the Sun (93 million miles).  While the “Astronomical Unit” is an absolute measure of distance, astronomers also measure small angular distances or movements as seen through the telescope or on photos in the relative terms of Arc-Minutes (1’= 1/60th of a degree) or Arc-Seconds ( 1″ = 1/3,600 of a degree).  For example, the full Moon has has an angular diameter of 1/2 degree or 30 arc-seconds.

Not all of the stars in the list are visible from Colorado, nor is my search complete for those that are. Below is a selection of some that I have been able to photograph.

RECONS #1 – Our nearest interstellar neighbor is the Alpha Centauri star system only 4.37 light years distant. Though this system is not visible from Colorado, I was able to photograph this star and other other stellar wonders of the southern hemisphere from the deck of a cruise ship while on a recent Hawaii Cruise. Alpha Centauri is the third brightest star in the sky (after Sirius and Canopus) and is actually a triple star system. The third member of this system – Proxima Centauri – is actually closest to our sun at 4.26 light years distant. Other objects of note in the photo is the Omega Centauri globular cluster – the largest and brightest globular cluster in our galaxy, and the the Southern Cross Constellation which is as iconic in the southern skies as the Big Dipper constellation is in the north.
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RECONS #2 – Barnard’s Star is the second closest star to our solar system at a distance of 5.98 light-years and due to its proximity its motion through our galaxy is readily apparent when compared to the much more distant background stars. The photo above shows its change of position in the night sky from November 15, 2015 to July 7, 2022.
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RECONS #3
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RECONS #4
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RECONS #5 -Sirius is the brightest star in the sky and the 5th closest star system to the Sun at 8.6 light years. Sirius has twice the mass of our Sun and its White Dwarf companion is the closest White Dwarf star to our solar system. White Dwarfs are essentially Dead Stars that have exhausted their nuclear fuel and have gone through an end-stage gravitational collapse, compressing their remaining mass into a volume roughly the size of Earth. They shine through the release of their latent heat, slowing cooling for billions of years to come. Before the companion devolved into a white dwarf 120 million years ago, it was the brightest star in the system with a mass 5 times that of our Sun.
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RECONS #6
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RECONS #6 – A close-up view of the BL/UV Ceti Binary Pair. The photo was taken through a C9.25 SCT telescope and is a stack of five 8-second exposures. The orbital radius of this star pair is 8.8 AU (Astronomical Units) which is just slightly smaller that the orbital radius of Saturn around our Sun (9.2 to 9.9 AU).
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RECONS #7
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RECONS #8
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RECONS #9
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RECONS #10
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RECONS #11
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RECONS #12
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RECONS #13 – At 10.3 light years distant the binary system 61 Cygni is the 13th closest star system to our Sun.  In 1804 Italian astronomer Giuseppi Piazzi noted its very large motion through the sky (5.2 Arc-sec/year) which earned it the nickname of “Piazzi’s Flying Star”.  For more information on this star see my article “Chasing 61 Cygni” which can be found in the Publications Menu.
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RECONS #14 – Procyon, the brightest star in the constellation of Canis Minor (The Little Dog) shines at magnitude +0.4 making it the 14th brightest star in our sky. It is located at a distance of 11.4 Light Years from our Sun which makes it the 14th closest star system to our Sun. Procyon is a F5 IV subgiant with a mass of ~1.5 Msun and like Sirius has a dim White Dwarf companion that orbits at a distance of 15 AU with a period of 40.8 years.
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RECONS #15
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RECONS #16 – This system is the 16th closest star/system to the Sun and a planet has recently been detected orbiting this star. The Voyager 1 space craft,which has been traveling through space for 40 years now is currently about 141 AU from our Sun. This is nearly the same separation as that of Groombridge AB which is currently listed at 147 AU. The separation shown in the photo makes an interesting yardstick for putting all this in perspective.
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RECONS #16 – Though it has a proper motion smaller than that of our speediest neighbors (Barnards Star and 61 Cygni) the motion of Groombridge 34 is still noticeable over a reasonable timespan. Here is a composite photo showing the change in position of Groombridge 34 from February 2017 to August of 2024 – a 7 1/2 year interval.
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RECONS #17 – GJ 845 – Epsilon Indi – Not visible from Colorado

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RECONS #18
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RECONS #19
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RECONS #20 – GJ 1061 – LHS 1565 – Not visible from Colorado

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RECONS #21 – YZ Ceti is a faint Red Dwarf located in a sparse star field. It closest neighbor is Tau Ceti (#19) located only 1.6 LY distant.
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RECONS #22
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RECONS #23 – SCR 1845-6357 – Not visible from Colorado

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RECONS #24
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RECONS #25, #26 & #27 – Not visible from Colorado

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RECONS #28 – At a distance of 13.5 light years, Kruger 60 is the 28th closest star system to our Sun. The system is composed of two red dwarf stars with masses of 0.25 & 0.18 Msun. The stars orbit each other at a distance of 9.5 AU (approx Sun-Saturn distance) with a period of 44.6 years.
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RECONS #28 – A higher resolution photo of Kruger 60 showing the binary pair.
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RECONS #29
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RECONS #30
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RECONS #31
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RECONS #34
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RECONS #36
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RECONS #37 – V1581 Cyg is a triple system composed of three red dwarfs, each of which barely have enough mass to sustain hydrogen fusion. At 14 LY distant they are the 37th closest stars to the Sun.  The AB orbital separation of 33 AU is comparable to the orbit of Neptune to give you a sense of scale. The AC pair is not resolved in my photo.
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GJ 674 (RECONS # 38) and GJ 440 (RECONS # 38) are not visible from Colorado.

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RECONS #40
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RECONS #41
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#43 – Almost all nearby stars exhibit large proper motions and the binary system Gleise 412 in Ursa Major is no exception. The image on the left was taken in 2018 of this binary system. On the Right is a composite of the 2018 image and a follow-up image taken in 2024 which clearly shows the change of position of this system over this 6 year interval of approximately 27 arc-seconds. You can click on the individual images for a close-up view.

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RECONS #44
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RECONS #45
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RECONS #49 – The beautiful triple system Omicron Eridani (40 Eridani) at 16.2 LY distant and is the mythical home of Star Treks’ Mr. Spock. In recent years a planet has indeed been discovered to be orbiting around 40 Eridani A. 
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RECONS #54 – EI Cancri is a pair of Red Dwarf stars located 17 light years away which makes it the 54th closest star system. This faint pair (the individual stars are not resolved) have masses of 0.12 & 0.10 Msun and an orbital period of 360 years.
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RECONS #70 – Wolf 1055 at 19.07 LY is the 70th closest star to our solar system and is a binary system. The photo may be somewhat confusing as the secondary star is not the bright 13 magnitude star next to Wolf 1055, but is in fact the much more distant and diminutive star VB10 – also known as  “Van Biesbroeck’s Star”.  When VB10 was discovered in 1944 it was the coolest, least massive and least luminous star known at the time until LHS 2924 took over that distinction in 1983. VB10 has a mass of 0.075 Msun which is right at the lower limit for nuclear fusion and its radius is 0.1 Rsun.  If put in the place of our sun it would shine as bright as the full moon when viewed from earth.
RECONS #71 – Distance: 19.11 LY – The star trail photo highlights the subtle color difference of the stars that make up this nearby binary pair.
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RECONS #81 – At 19.7 LY distant, GJ 1221 is the seventh closest White Dwarf.
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RECONS #82 – At 20.8 light years away this perfectly matched pair of M class stars ranks #82 in the list of nearest stars.
RECONS #95 – The quintuple star system centered on V1054 Ophiuchi at a distance of 21.04 Light Years ranks #95 in the list of nearest stars . Note that the Ba & Bb stars are not resolved in this photo.
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Currently located at a distance of 22.8 Light-Years, some 70,000 years ago the Red-Dwarf/Brown-Dwarf binary system known as “Scholz’s Star” passed within 0.82 LY (52,000 AU) of our solar system. Astronomers believe that this close approach will have caused significant perturbations to the orbits of objects in the “Oort Cloud” that surrounds our solar system and that our solar system could expect a flurry of comet activity some 2 million years from now. This binary system is very faint – shining at a visual magnitude of 18.3 – making it a challenging target to photograph. The photo on the left is a Palomar Sky Survey photo showing the location of Scholz’s Star and on the right is my photo which was taken with my C9.25 SCT telescope. Eight 45-second exposures were taken and combined to make the final image and aggressive digital-photo processing (hence the rather irregular star shapes) was required to pull-out the faint 18.3 magnitude star from the background noise. For comparison, the brightest star in the frame (TYC 5395-4319-1) shines at a comparatively bright 11.0 magnitude.
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VYS 2 is a nearby triple system composed of three Red Dwarf stars. There is some evidence that the B component may also have a low-mass companion (0.15 Msun) orbiting it.
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