Copyright © 2003 Torsten Bronger.
It’s summer time in the Northern Hemisphere, a perfect time to see the MIlky Way – if we didn’t have so much light pollution.
Cygnus the Swan glides over some of the most interesting lanes of our home galaxy, so if we did have perfectly dark skies, we’d be seeing dust clouds and nebula perfectly with the naked eye.
Unfortunately for me at least, living 40 miles from New York City, I have to settle for imagining how it would look. Still, there are treasures to behold in the celestial swan, even under bright skies.
In Greek mythology, Cygnus is the form taken by the god Zeus to seduce Leda, the wife of the King of Sparta.
Cygnus is easy enough to find, just look due east for a sideways cross about halfway up the sky.
Starting at the top, or at the tail as it were, the bright star Deneb (Alpha Cygnus) at magnitude 1.25 is the 19th brightest star visible from Earth. Deneb is one third of the Summer Triangle, the other components being Vega (in Lyra) and Altair (in Aqila).
At the other end, the beak of the swan, is Albireo (Beta Cygnus), one of the most beautiful double stars you can see with a small telescope. Even low magnification will bring out the blue and gold of the two stars. It’s very rare to get this much color in any star, let alone a double.
There are also a great deal of deep sky targets in Cygnus, the most notable being NGC 7000, AKA the North American Nebula. I’ve only ever seen it with a great deal of technological enhancements but it’s unmistakable once you find it. If your skies are darker than mine, just look a bit east of Deneb and you’ll see the familiar east coast of North America splayed out in the sky.
For more on Cygnus, the Small Wonders column on Cloudy Nights is a good place to start.