Albireo - β Cygni

IMAGE DETAILS

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 : 24oC Camera Temperature -5οC
Mount .......................................   Paramount ME
Guiding ....................................   Unguided
Processing Details ................    Photoshop , Maxim , CCDsoft
Notes ........................................   Weather: 8/10 - Transparence: 3/6 - Humidity : 70%

Target details .........................    
Albireo (β Cyg, β Cygni, Beta Cyg, Beta Cygni) is the fifth brightest star in the constellation Cygnus. Although it has the Bayer designation beta, it is fainter than Gamma Cygni, Delta Cygni, and Epsilon Cygni. 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. The brighter yellow star (actually itself a very close binary system) makes a striking colour contrast with its fainter blue companion star.
Albireo is 380 light-years (120 pc) away from the Earth. When viewed with the naked eye, it appears to be a single star. However, in a telescope it readily resolves into a double star, consisting of Albireo A (amber, apparent magnitude 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. If they are, their orbital period is probably at least 100,000 years.

 

© Nikos Paschalis