Many stars in the Orion constelation have crosses, spheres, with spiral patterns in their visual photos. The crosses appear to be lense flares, but are the circular spheres real or part of the lens flare; as viewed with SkyView Virtual Observatory at http://skyview.gsfc.nasa.gov/
Located at 05 12 54.31, -16 13 06.2 DSS .25 degree FOV
X1000 pixels
2007-09-01 17:18:02 · 3 answers · asked by Bernard M 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
Also, that image is not "a star." It's a .25 degree section of the sky taken from a survey. Or about half the angular size of the full moon. It probably contains several hundred stars.
And the visual artifact in the image is just that - artifact caused by internal reflection, among other sources.
2007-09-02 08:29:35 · answer #1 · answered by skeptik 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I looked at the object and those spherical forms are undoubtedly aberrations caused by the lens. They're much too symmetrical to be anything else.
2007-09-01 19:00:06 · answer #2 · answered by Chug-a-Lug 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Its a combination of the lens and reflections off the inner structures of the telescope.
2007-09-02 02:32:13 · answer #3 · answered by morningfoxnorth 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋