The Astronomical Society of Greenwich	BruceMuseum.com
	The Bruce Museum, Museum Drive Greenwich, CT 06830 (203) 869-6786, Ext. 338 Astronomical Society of Greenwich info

What's up at the Bowman Observatory

One of these star groups is Cygnus (the swan). Cygnus will be in the east when the sky gets dark and looks like a cross on its side (it's sometimes called the northern cross). In the tail of the swan (or the head of the cross) is the bright star Deneb (marked ‘D’). Deneb is a super-giant star shining 50,000 times brighter than our star, the Sun. In the head of the swan (or the foot of the cross) is a double star called Albireo (marked ‘A’). In the telescope, Albireo is seen as two stars, one gold and one blue. Nowhere else in the sky are two bright stars with such different colors seen so close together.

Cygnus was photographed from the Texas star party. A 50mm lens was piggybacked for a 4 min exposure on 3200asa film. The north American Nebula is to the lower left of the bright star Deneb.