Albireo Beta Cygni

Albireo or Beta Cygni in the Constellation  Cygnus the Swan. 127mm Meade Apo Refractor and astromodded Canon 200d DSLR. A cropped stack of 20x 30 sec exposures at ISO800. Credit Pip Stakkert.

 "Albireo appears as a single star to the naked eye  but when observed with even a small  telescope is easliy resolved into two colour contrasting stars. In reality the brighter yellow star Beta Cygni  A is a very close binary star system. Beta Cygni B is a contrasting blue star. It is not known whether A and B are orbiting each other or whether they are a line of sight 'optical double'. A and B are estimated to between 330 and 390 light years distant. Beta Cygni A is a relatively cool K type Giant  star and Beta Cygni B is a hot fast rotating BE star."  - Joel Cairo CEO of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Mizar and Alcor in the Constellation Ursa Major

The multiple star systems Mizar A, Miza B and Alcor. 127mm Meade Apo Refractor and astro-modded Canon 200d DSLR. A stack of 30 sec images taken at ISO800 and ISO400. Credit: Pip Stakkert. 

" To the keen naked eye, Mizar and Alcor appear as two stars in the tail of Ursa Major the Great Bear or the handle of 'the Plough'. In truth they are two multiple star systems. Mizar is a quadruple star system whilst Alcor is a binary system. These star systems are 83 light years from our Sun and are moving with a common proper motion.  Between Mizar and Alcor, the 8th-magnitude star Sidus Ludoviciana is a distant background object. We were pleased that we were able to split two of Mizar's four component stars." - Kurt Thrust" current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory

An old and young friend

Saturn and 4 moons. A compilation of stacked video frames taken with the 127mm Meade Apo refractor, 3x Barlow and QHY5llcol. video colour camera. Credit: Pip Stakkert

 " It's nice to see our old friend, the ringed planet Saturn shining yellow just over our southern horizon here at the Jodrell Plank Observatory in Oulton Broad, Suffolk. For the last few years Saturn has remained low in the sky and presents a number of altitude related difficulties for planetary imagers. Our view of the planet's rings changes over time on a cyclical basis and from our visual perspective the rings appear to be closing. In a few years time the rings will be edge on as seen from Earth. Saturn has 82 moons varying in size from the largest Titan, which is bigger than the planet Mercury, to the smallest about the size of a tennis court. Titan cannot be seen on this image as its orbit is larger than the field of view.

NGC 7000 the North American Nebula in the Constellation Cygnus. Image taken from Ed Sargisson's Observatory in Norwich. Credit: Ed Sargisson.

Our young and good friend to the Jodrell Plank Observatory, Ed Sargisson, imaged the North American Nebula from his location in central Norwich. The extensive glowing hydrogen gas is well portrayed in this excellent photograph. The difficulty of capturing faint nebula from a light polluted city cannot be over emphasised. The 'Cygnus Wall', a popular target for narrow band imagers, can be seen as the horizontal band of brighter red luminosity in the bottom right of the image" - Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.