"Cygnus Doubles"

Heading out to Anza once again this time bigzmey (Andrey) confronted a Bortle 7.0 sky due to the presence of the nearly full moon. While not a great time to track down faint DSO's - planets and double stars are not impacted by light pollution.

Using an array of powerful eyepieces on his Celestron Edge 9.25" and 102mm refractor scopes yielding smaller and smaller exit pupils he was able to split a variety of double stars and multiple star systems in Cygnus. Saving the best for last, he focused on Albireo, the gold and blue pair at the tip of the Swan's tail.

But actually one finds out that Albireo is not a pair but a multiple star system with a host of members lying very close to the primary. In fact, it is debatable if the famous light blue star is even a companion, as it may be an optical double as Andrey points out.

The closer in members (which most folks don't know about) require aperture and steady seeing to pick out from the glare, which Andrey does magnificently. Congratulations Andrey on a very creative and successful session, pushing the equipment to their limits - and capturing the VROD for the day!

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