Had fun playing with the telescope again last night on BSU’s campus.
This time, we observed 55 Cnc, one of very few naked-eye stars that hosts transiting exoplanets. 55 Cnc’s planetary system comprises five fairly large planets, including one twice the size and eight times the mass of Earth in an orbit that roasts its surface at a temperature of 2,360 K — hot enough to vaporize iron.
Below is our image of the sky, annotated by the astrometry.net service (try to ignore the dark doughnut that is probably a dust mote on the telescope). 55 Cnc is the bright star at the bottom and is also called HD 75732.
55 Cnc observed by BSU’s campus.
