Although known as Beta Orionis, meaning the second brightest star in the easily recognizable constellation Orion, blue supergiant star Rigel is in reality brighter than Betelgeuse with 40.000 times the luminosity of the Sun.
It is a triple star system with Rigel B and C distinguished here for the first time orbiting each other 300 billion kilometers from Rigel. The system is 770 light years away from the Sun.
MEADE 14” LX200, SBIG ST2K. Composite image; Exposure times: 0.005 seconds for Rigel A and 0.005 for Rigel B and C in high resolution. Image development in CCDops and Adobe Photoshop CS5 Extended
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