Albireo

I was waiting and waiting for the moon to rise above the house, but although it is now reasonably high in the sky, my line of sight from the observatory is hindered. In 20 minutes it will be up, but I need to go to my bed.

So I give you Albireo. Albireo is in the constellation of Cygnus and with the naked eye it appears to be one star. However, with the telescope, it becomes apparent that it is a binary star - essentially two stars that are bound together by gravitational attraction to one another. The brighter of the two stars burns at about 20,000 degrees fahrenheit, the smaller/less bright burns at a measly 8000 degree. My camera was set on tungsten white balance, so the colour is not as it should be. The brighter star would normally image in an orangey colour, the smaller star as a blue shade. The two stars take thousands of years to orbit each other.

That's your lot for tonight. One of these days I will present a moon shot for you, but it's not likely to be in the immediate future, unless the weather gods play ball and the moon gets itself into gear and transits in a position that is appropriate for the position of my telescope.

For those returning to work tomorrow, I salute you and wish you well. Unlike someone today who felt it necessary to comment on how easy teachers have it. I avoided the argument and just said "Yeah, it's great. 9 till 3.30 and umpteen holidays a year". Nowhere to go if I don't bite. Haha.