At 8 p.m. just at the end of astronomical twilight, Cygnus the Swan is overhead. Cygnus is also known as the Northern Cross since the six brightest stars of Cygnus form a cross, with the top of the cross pointing northeast and the bottom pointing southwest.
Cygnus is an ancient constellation coming down to us from myth and legend.
The brightest star in Cygnus is Deneb, which is at the top of the cross. However, Deneb is the tail of the Swan. Deneb is the Arabic word for tail, and Cygnus is flying south along the Milky Way.
Deneb is the 19th-brightest star but is so far away that its exact distance is not known. It has been estimated to be anywhere from 1,425 light-years to over 3,000 light-years from us. In either case, it still is one of the brightest stars, attesting to its luminosity of nearly 60,000 times that of the sun. Deneb has a diameter over 100 times that of the sun.
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At the head of the Swan is the wonderful star Albireo. It is not all that bright, but it can be easily seen in light-polluted skies.
Albireo gets its fame from being a beautiful double star when viewed in a small telescope. The two stars making up Albireo have contrasting golden and blue colors in a telescope, though to the naked eye they look like a single somewhat golden star.
