(SNES) Albireo

["Les Coleman" <les11@cox.net>]

Hi

I've been looking at Albireo for I don't know how many years. I've swung the
16"  at FDO over to it at least 20 times since it was installed just ab it
over three years ago. Sure enough I have seen the nice blue star and the
yellow orange star time and time again. Or have I? The system is much more
complex than I had suspected. Early today I was looking at some FITS format
plates from the Hubble and I noticed some odd interference patterns in
beta-1 cygni (the yellowish star). It looked like two stars were located
there rather than the one I had always seen before. Beta-2 cygni also showed
a slight irregularity in the image which made me suspicious that it too was
a double star making Albireo a double double. Well it is and it isn't.

Beta-2 is definitely a true double star, but beta-1 is only a line of sight
double. At 0.3 and 0.1 arcseconds respectively no telescope I have ever
looked through can split these double doubles [beta-1 and beta-2 are 34.3
arcseconds apart making them an easy target even for a good pair of 8x50
binoculars]. The line of sight double beta-1 is composed of HD183912 (193
LYs, magnitude 3.07, and yellow orange) and HD183913(?? LYs, magnitude 3.5
and nearly white) Beta-2 is HD183914(193 LYs, magnitudes 5.11 and 7.11 and
much bluer than Vega). HD183914(double) and HD183912 are true
orbiting multiple stars. HD183913 is  a line of sight star at an unknown
distance.

"Beta-1"s total magnitude is 2.5. Beta-2 (the true double) is 4.95.
Combining these together gives a total magnitude of all four stars at 2.4.

I am amazed at how much astronomy has to teach me even when I would lay a
wager that I knew the target involved.

Les

Even things
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