Been playing around the last two nights with a celestial charting program which draws constellations and allows you to show special objects within.
Here is a map I created of what the great astronomer Patrick Moore calls The Summer Triangle. The cross shape (also called the Northern Cross) is Cygnus the Swan. At its tail lies the brightest star Deneb. At the head lies one of the most spectacular double stars in the sky named Albireo. Check out he Wiki reference When you first see this fantastic star you see a gorgeous gold main star with a smaller deep blue companion. When I first saw this I was amazed at its beauty.
Below Cygnus lies the constellation of Aquila the Eagle. Its brightest star is at the head named Altair.
The most beautiful and brightest star in the summer sky lies in the constellation of Lyra the Lyre. It is the beautiful blue Vega of which its colour is visible in binoculars. The most famous object in that which is possible to see in small telescopes is M57 the Ring Nebula I have also seen this and can describe it as like a small smoke ring in space.
In this region of the sky lie fascinating variable stars and other objects which I am only just starting to discover myself. I just thought I'd like to share some of the easy famous objects with TTers who may not have heard of them, to inspire them to grab a pair of binoculars or to buy one of the telescopes which appear in shops like Lidl from time to time.
