Astrophoto: Say Hello to Albireo!

RickJ submitted this amazing image of the double star Albireo through the Bad Astronomy and Universe Today forum.

“I only had about 20 minutes before the target I wanted would be getting too close the the meridian to get much on the east side before it went into the “Meridian Tree”. It would be too low when it came out the west side. So twiddle my thumbs for 20 minutes or find something to image. I chose the latter. I took 15 minutes (5, one minute shots in each color) of Alberio. I actually ended up processing them.”

Albireo is located 380 light-years away from the Earth in the constellation Cygnus. It is composed of two stars that have different temperatures, an orange-red giant star Albireo A and a blue Be star Albireo B. It was discovered in 1976 that Albireo A is a binary star system.

Albireo is an amazing target for the viewing public because it easily resolves into a double star when observed through a telescope.

Here are some additional specs provided by RickJ:

14″ L200R @ f/10, RGB=5×1′, STL-11000XM, Paramount ME

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