Time Travel: Albireo  

 


Streifenverzierung
   
 
 

ALBIREO
390 light years
 

Constellation Cygnus

Do stars have different colors? Watching the sky carefully, it becomes obvious that categories like ‘Red Giants’ and ‘White Dwarfs’, which relate to different stages in the life cycle of a star, are established for good reason.


But our eyes only recognize colors if sufficient light is present, which means that many celestial objects appear to us in black and white. The star Albireo, however, a double star marking the head of the swan in the constellation Cygnus, displays a beautiful color contrast even in small telescopes: An orange star with relatively low surface temperature and a hot, blue companion orbit each other, moving very slowly.

 

 
 
 
30 August 2008, Vienna, focal length 1320 mm, f/6.6, exposure time 10 seconds