Cygnus

To most amateur astronomers “Alberio” is perhaps the most beautiful double star in the sky. Easily viewed with telescopes of any size the color contrasting blue and gold stars are an unforgettable sight. The photo above doesn’t do justice to the vibrant colors when viewed through a telescope. The photo below which was taken through a bahtinov focusing mask which spreads out the colors a bit gives a better impression of the vibrant color contrast.
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Visible to the naked eye as a 4th magnitude star, 61 Cygni is actually a beautiful double star system located only 13 light-years distant making them the 17th closest stars to our Sun. Due to its proximity it exhibits a a very large motion against the background stars which are located much further away. This movement was first noticed by Giuseppe Piazzi in 1804 which earned it the nickname “Piazzi’s Flying Star”. For more information on this fascinating double refer to my article “Chasing 61 Cygni” which can be found in the publications menu.
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The “Fairy Ring” in Cygnus – also known as “Chapel’s Arc” is an asterism composed of Double Stars and unrelated field stars that appear to be arranged in a circular pattern. The ring is most easily discerned using a low-power wide-field eyepiece.
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This interesting grouping of stars does not appear to have any true physical association.
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The 13 triple systems that make up “SRW” series of Double Stars were selected not based on their actual physicality but based on their geometry – namely forming a equilateral triangle of similar stars. As such these are mainly chance associations and not physical systems. For a detailed discussion and additional photos of these systems go to the following thread on the Cloudy Nights Double Star Forum: “SRW10 in Cygnus“.
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