Look to the north Mid evening in October, if you are in the southern hemisphere or almost overhead if you are in the northern hemisphere and you will see the distinctive triangle formed by the 3 bright stars of Altair in Aquila "the Eagle", Deneb in the tail of Cygnus "the Swan" and Vega at the heart of "Lyra the harp".

The first thing that will leap out at you from this Asterism of the triangle (an asterism being a group of stars that make a shape but do not form a true constellation) will be Cygnus the Swan, looking at first glance like a cross. It measures an outstretched hand span on its long axis, held at arms length, and so is hard to miss, with Deneb at the bottom of the tail. One of the Jewels of Cygnus is arguably the most beautiful double star in the night sky at the head of the swan, or the bottom star of the Cross depending how you see it. It is the beautiful binary star Albiro, a lovely contrasting golden yellow & Sapphire blue pair that can be "Split" even with a small telescope.

The next star at the base of the Triangle is Vega in "Lyra the harp", Vega became well known from the Film "Contact" as the point of first contact with the aliens! What it does in fact hide is the delightful "Ring Nebula", which is best seen with a scope of 200mmm in mirror size or bigger. It can be found 1/2 way between the 2 stars of the Parallelogram in Lyra, furtherest away from Vega. This dusty smoke ring is the remnant of the dying star at its center.

Aquila the Eagle at the top of the Triangle is the brightest star in this constellation & the 13th brightest star in the sky at Magnitude .75 and only 5.3 light years away it is just down the celestial road.

There are many more delights to be discovered in and around these constellations.

You too can learn to uncover the hidden secrets of the night sky, visit my site www.nightskysecrets.com, where you can download a free copy of my Audio “15 proven Steps to Master the night sky”



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