Why Albireo the Beautiful? Because Albireo, the 'beak' in the Cygnus (Swan) constellation, is probably the most beautiful thing you will ever see in a small telescope like mine. It is barely visible to the naked eye, and it would only appear as a faint white star. But train a telescope on it and you'll be in for a very pleasant surprise. No magnificent clouds of a million colours that you would see in a Hubble picture of a nebula - just two colours: yellow and blue. But they are like the fiery eyes of an odd-eyed cat staring at you from the pitch black darkness of infinite space. Or like a gold nugget and sapphire stone set in dark velvet on some cosmic jeweller's store front.
You might have guessed by now that I really like this binary star :) Albireo is at last at a decent height over the horizon at this time of the year, so I just had to capture an image of it while the skies were cloudless last night. Below is a video I took of the binary star (best viewed in full screen mode), followed by a still image produced after image stacking and processing of the video:
This double star consists of the brighter yellow Albireo A and the fainter blue Albireo B. Seen in a small telescope, the two appear quite close to each other (they are about 35 seconds of arc apart) and it is probably this proximity that heightens the contrast in colours and makes it such a delight to behold. The great thing about this double star is that this is one case where small is beautiful. Observing it with a small scope or even binoculars is more rewarding than viewing it with a monster telescope - the colours appear more intense in low magnification optics.
The video and photo I captured above really do not do this double star justice. This is one star you just have got to see with your own eyes to appreciate its true beauty. Trust me, you will be besotted - as I am.
