Cherokee #3 Pronto & Cygnus (Part I)

Pronto & Cygnus (Part 1 Doubles)

Equipment Used

TV Pronto
Gibraltar Mount
24mm konig, Ultima barlow
Nightwatch, Audbon book to the night sky

Summer Triangle

I began the evening looking for the "summer triangle". Given this is
my 2nd observing session, it's no surprise I've never seen it before
Mark D mentioned it in Cherokee #2 thread. I laid back on the lawn
with my pocket guide open to the month of July. I quickly found Vega,
the bright star in the constellation Lyra. It took me a bit of time to
find Deneb, the bright star in the tail of the swan of the
constellation Cygnus.

I never did find Altair, the last bright star of the triangle. Partly
this may be due to trees which blocked my view of that section of the
sky. Next time I'll take a look from a different spot on the lawn.

Cygnus

Cygnus itself was easy to find once I located Lyra. What amazed me was
how big the constellation Cygnus is. It stretches across an impressive
swatch of sky. It must be one of the biggest constellations.

The shape of Cygnus is remarkably easy to identify, it's a giant cross.
I assume Deneb is the tail of the swan and Albireo is the head on the
long neck. Regardless of what my book says about Swans, I see a giant
cross. However, giant, flying crosses would not make for good
mythology tales.

Cygnus Double Stars

Due to the sheer # of objects listed in my Nightwatch map of Cygnus, I
decided to break my viewing to 2 nights, 1 night for doubles, 1 night
for deep sky objects.

Beta Cygnus: <gasp> this is one very beautiful double. Gold primary,
blue secondary
Omicron Cygnus: A triple star?? 1 orange 2 blue.
16-Cygnus: a perfect pair of equal brightness stars
61-Cygnus : it took a bit of hunting for this one but I eventually
found this matched pair of stars. Both appeared to be of the same
brightness and color

Once again I'm impressed with how easy the Pronto and Starbeam make
finding objects. Just put the dot on the star you wish to look at, and
there it is in the eyepiece.

A very fun evening. Part II - Cygnus Deep Sky & the Pronto coming to
theatres near you.

peace,
Cherokee

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