Albireo - β Cygni
Cygnus · 1 / 9 /2012 - 18:20 UTC · Celestron C11 HD f/10
About the target
Albireo (β Cyg, β Cygni, Beta Cyg, Beta (opens in a new tab) Cygni) is the fifth brightest star (opens in a new tab) in the constellation (opens in a new tab) Cygnus (opens in a new tab). Although it has the Bayer designation (opens in a new tab) beta, it is fainter than Gamma Cygni (opens in a new tab), Delta Cygni (opens in a new tab), and Epsilon Cygni (opens in a new tab). Albireo appears to the naked eye to be a single star of magnitude 3 but through a telescope, even low magnification views resolve it into a double star (opens in a new tab). The brighter yellow star (actually itself a very close binary system (opens in a new tab)) makes a striking colour contrast with its fainter blue companion star.
Albireo is 380 light-years (opens in a new tab) (120 pc (opens in a new tab)) away from the Earth. When viewed with the naked eye, it appears to be a single star. However, in a telescope (opens in a new tab) it readily resolves into a double star (opens in a new tab), consisting of Albireo A (amber, apparent magnitude (opens in a new tab) 3.1), and Albireo B (blue-green, apparent magnitude 5.1). Separated by 35 seconds of arc, the two components provide one of the best contrasting double stars in the sky due to their different colors. It is not known whether the two components are orbiting around each other in a physical binary system (opens in a new tab). If they are, their orbital period is probably at least 100,000 years.
Text from Wikipedia.
© Nikos Paschalis
Observing log
- Object
- Albireo A
- Constellation
- Cygnus
- Distance + Ap. Magnitude
- 450 Light Years (139 parsec) - 3.18
- RA / DEC
- 19h:30m.43sec / +27° 57m.34sec
Spectral type/V-R Color index K3III / 0.92 - Mass / Radius
- 5 solar / 70 solar
- Inclination / Eccentricity
- 154.9° / 0.256
- Temperature
- 4080 Kelvin
- Object
- Albireo B
- Constellation
- Cygnus
- Distance + Ap. Magnitude
- 380 Light Years (115 parsec) - 5.09
- RA / DEC
- 19h:30m.45sec / +27° 57m.54sec
Spectral type/U-B Color index B8Ve/ -0.30 - Mass / Radius
- 3.7 solar / 2.7 solar
- Inclination / Eccentricity
- - / -
- Temperature
- 13200 Kelvin
- Date + Time
- 1 / 9 /2012 - 18:20 UTC
- Location
- “Nunki Observatory” - Skiathos
- Optics
- Celestron C11 HD f/10
- Tools
- CCDsoft
- Camera
- SBIG ST-2000XM with CFW10 (Astrodon filters)
- Exposure Time
- Luminance: 10 X 30sec RGB: 5 X 60sec (each)
- More Details
- Environment Temperature: 24 °C Camera Temperature -5 °C
- Mount
- Paramount ME
- Guiding
- Unguided
- Processing Details
- Photoshop, Maxim, CCDsoft
- Notes
- Weather: 8/10 - Transparence: 3/6 - Humidity: 70%