25 September 2025

 There were four targets fro "Turn Left At Orion"  that I wanted to try for this night. M92, M56, M39, and the double star Albireo. By the time I was aligned and ready to observe, I  only could observe M56 for a short time before it went behind the hills and trees to the west. I moved over to M39. This is an open cluster in  Cygnus. I spent quite a bit of time looking at it, using 32mm and 25mm Plossl eyepieces. I wasn't able to positively identify it at the time. The next morning I looked it up and was in fact in the right spot. Unfortunately, I didn't think to sketch it since I wasn't sure at the time.

Next I moved to M92, a globular cluster in  Hercules. It is approximately 27,000 light years away and contains about 350,000 stars. It is what is referred to as a metal poor cluster, which means it contains few elements heavier than Hydrogen or Helium. I spent about 10 minutes just observing and trying different eyepieces to see more detail. I spent 10-15 minutes making a sketch. I was able to go up to a 13mm eyepiece giving a magnification of  156x.

 

From M92, I moved over to Albireo (Beta Cygni). Albireo A, the brighter star of the pair, has a yellowish appearance, and is a true binary itself.Albireo B, the second star of the visible pair, is slightly smaller and has a bluish color. You need to spend time looking at these stars before much color becomes discernible.These were originally thought to be a true binary system but are now thought to be just an optical double. The Hipparcos mission showed that Albireo A and B are actually far apart and not gravitationally bound. It also found that Albireo A is actually a true double (or possibly triple) star system. the stars in Albireo A can't be split with typical amateur telescopes.