Digital Illustration of Albireo (Beta Cygni / Struve-A 43)
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Observation Notes – October 15/16, 2011:
Albireo gets its startling beauty not only from its striking color contrast, but also from the rich star field that surrounds it. I wanted to make an updated sketch that shows that field at lower power. This shows the double in a 35 arc minute wide 120X field. I also took a few minutes to measure separation and PA, recorded below.
| Subject | Albireo / Beta Cygni (STF-A 43) |
| Classification | Double Star |
| Position (J2000) | Cygnus [RA: 19:30:43.281 / Dec: +27:57:34.85]* |
| Position Angle* | AB: 54° [My Measurement 2011.9] AB: 54° [WDS 2010]* |
| Separation* | AB: 36″ [My Measurement 2011.9] AB: 34.8 [WDS 2010]* |
| Magnitudes* | 3.2/4.7 |
| Spectral Types* | K3II/B8V |
| Date/Time | OCT 15, 2011 – 10:00 MST (OCT 16, 2011 – 05:00 UT) |
| Observing Loc. | Flagstaff, AZ – Home |
| Instrument | Orion SkyQuest XT8 Dobsonian (203 mm dia./1200 mm F/L) |
| Eyepieces/Mag. | Pentax XW10 (120X) Meade Astrometric EP + 2X Barlow (200X) |
| Conditions | Clear, cool, rising gibbous moon |
| Seeing | 5/10 Pickering |
| Transparency | Mag. ~5.2 NELM |
| *References | The Washington Visual Double Star Catalog (Mason+, 2001-2012) |
Observation Notes and Sketch – September 4, 2006:
After viewing several subtly or elusively colored doubles, this pair was like dynamite! The purest yellow primary with a deep blue secondary snuggled amid a number of fainter stars that sprinkled the high power view. It looks even better at low power with a greater number of field stars and those saturated colors nestled even closer to each other.
| Date/Time | SEP 04, 2006 – 1:10 AM MST (SEP 04, 2006 – 08:25 UT) |
| Observing Loc. | Flagstaff, AZ – Home |
| Instrument | Orion SVP 6LT Reflector (150 mm dia./1200 mm F/L) |
| Eyepieces/Mag. | 10 mm Sirius Plossl + 2X Barlow (240X) |
| Conditions | Clear, calm |
| Seeing | 5/10 Pickering |
| Transparency | NELM Mag ~4.0 |