#beta cygni

[the-wolf-and-moon]

Albireo, Beta Cygni

[kbetacygni]

For once in my life Let me get what I want Lord knows it would be the last time.

— Deftones, "Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want"

On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969, dir. Peter Hunt) // The Departed (2001, dir. Martin Scorsese) // Sicario (2015, dir. Denis Villeneuve) // Interstellar (2014, dir. Christopher Nolan)

[alascene]

Albireo, or Beta Cygni, which is an optical double star in the constellation Cygnus. When looking at it with your naked eye, it appears as a single star, but these two can easily be observed as separate stars with anything that can zoom in on them. One star is blue, the other is bright yellow, making them strikingly different companions.

[quiltofstars]

Albireo, β Cygni // Romain Dechamps

Albireo is a star system about 360-400 light years from Earth. It is a very clear double system. The bright yellow star is Albireo A, and is in fact a triple star system, while the dimmer blue star is Albireo B.

The origin of the name is uncertain. Despite the Arabic sounding name, it likely comes from a mistranslation of the Greek text, the Almagest: "...et dicitur eurisim quasi redolens ut lilium ab ireo".

The author refers to the plant Erysimum, which is called irio in Latin, but the proper ablative case would be irione. Perhaps it was a mistake?

[quiltofstars]

Albireo, β Cygni // Marc Whitsett

Albireo (β Cygni) is a double star, consisting of β Cygni A (orange) and β Cygni B (blue), and is one of the best contrasting double stars in the night sky due to their different colors. It's unknown if these two stars are actually gravitationally bound or are instead just an optical double.

β Cygni A is an orange giant star about 365 light years from Earth. It has a mass of about 5 times the Sun's and is almost 60 times larger than the Sun. Meanwhile, β Cygni B is a blue-white giant star about 400 light years from Earth. It is just under 4 times as massive and about 2.6 times larger than the Sun.

The origin of the name "Albireo" is uncertain. It comes from a translation of Ptolemy's Almagest, "...et dicitur eurisim quasi redolens ut lilium ab ireo" meaning "...and it is called Eurisim as if redolent like the lily from the 'ireo'". The problem is that "ireo" isn't a proper word. And then people mistook the name for an Arabic word, adding the L to make Albireo.

[the-wolf-and-moon]

Albireo, Beta Cygni

[quiltofstars]

A few double stars in the northern skies // Dark Rangers

Rasalgethi (α Herculis) is a true multiple star system, a triple star system. The name comes from the Arabic phrase ra'is al-jāthī meaning "head of the kneeler," the "kneeler" being Hercules.

Polaris (α Ursae Minoris) is another true triple star system. The name comes from Neo-Latin stella polaris meaning, unsurprisingly, "polar star."

Mizar (ζ Ursae Majoris) is a quadruple star system, with each pair being seen as a "single" star. The name comes from the Arabic word mi'zar meaning "apron, wrapper, or covering."

Almach (γ Andromedae) is a quadruple star system. The name comes from the Arabic word al-'anāq meaning "the caracal," also known as a desert lynx.

Albireo (β Cygni) is probably a visual binary, meaning the two stars just happen to be close to each other on the sky. The name has an uncertain origin, tracing back to Ptolemy.

Castor (α Geminorum) is a sextuple star system, made up of three pairs of stars. The name has its origin in the Greek myth of the twins Castor and Pollux.

[the-wolf-and-moon]

Twins Beta Cygni, Binary Stars