Explore the Universe - Cygnus

A cool night in Fall of 2016 I decided to map out the constellation of Cygnus the Swan.  Its brightest star, Deneb, forms one corner of the famous Summer Triangle asterism.

Cygnus has various Greek myths associated with it.  It is said that Zeus disguised himself as a swan to seduce the King of Sparta's wife and fathered Pollux and Helen(of Troy).  Pollux is better known with his twin brother Castor forming the twins of Gemini.  A son of Helios named Phaethon wanted to ride his father's chariot.  He completely lost control forcing Zeus to destroy it with his thunderbolt.  Phaethon was killed and fell into a river called Eridanus.  As an aside, a constellation bordering the southern part of Orion is called Eridanus.  It is a river and was meant to indicate the path Phaethon drove the chariot scorching the Earth and heavens with the sun.  Phaethon's grieving brother, Cycnus, spent days in the river collecting the bones of his fallen sibling.  Zeus, so touched by the familial devotion placed Cycnus into the sky as a swan, thus becoming Cygnus.

Cygnus is well known for its fifth brightest star -- Albireo.  It is actually a double star consisting of a bright yellow star and a fainter blue one.  An image I took of this double star is shown below.

Albireo

Cygnus also contains two Messier Objects -- M29 and M39.  These are two open clusters that are fairly visible through an ordinary pair of binoculars.  I had the opportunity to photograph both of these objects on a warm November 6, 2016 evening.  Images of them are shown below.

Messier 29

Messier 39

These two Messier objects were automatically found using a motorized mount so they can not be recorded as an observation for the Messier certificate until they are found manually.  The observation record for the constellation as mapped by binoculars is shown below.

Cygnus Observation Record

Cygnus is adjacent to the eagle constellation of Aquila.  These two bird constellations are handy for finding the Milky Way.  The birds are flying along two lanes of the Milky Way separated by the Great Rift.  The Great Rift is a series of molecular dust clouds that seem to separate the Sagittarius arm of the Milky Way.  Cygnus flies on one lane while Aquila flies along the other.  It is quite the sight to see far away from light polluted skies.