#sadr

The constellation of Cygnus, the Swan // Ondra Vyhlídal

Click below for an annotated image and some facts about Cygnus and some of its named stars!

The constellation of Cygnus, also known as the Swan. Here you can see four prominent stars of that constellation/

Deneb

Sadr

Fawaris

The bright star at the centre of the constellation of Cygnus (the Swan) is Sadr. In late summer, it has our attention because it is overhead in the evening if you live in the northern hemisphere. In cities with light pollution, it helps locate an adjacent spiral arm in our Milky Way galaxy. Point a telescope there, and it reveals a beautiful tapestry of stars and interstellar dust. The telltale red colour suggests hot hydrogen in a star-forming region.

The bright star at the centre of this photo is Sadr, at a distance of only 1,800 light years, it is certainly nearby, as is the adjacent spiral arm.

I photographed the Sadr Region from my garden in Strasbourg France on a single night in August 2024. This is an ensemble of 80 photographs, where each was a 3 minute exposure (4 hours of astrophotography).

The Drabble Challenge by: @thedrabblecollective Day 8 Prompt: Stars Fandom: Detroit: Become Human Characters: Captain Allen, Sixty / RK800-60

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“Would you look at that,” Allen gaped at the stars, something rare under Detroit’s light-polluted skies.

His unit was deployed a few miles out of town, only for it to be called off. Bad intel.

Sixty smirked. “The great SWAT captain is dumbfounded by the sky?”

“Not just the sky,” he said, pointing. “Deneb, Albireo.”

Sixty’s eyes followed.

“Sadr, Aljanah, Fawaris. The Northern Cross.”

The android’s LED blinked. “How will knowing asterisms help with missions?”

“It’s not protocol,” Allen grinned, “but it helps you bond with your grumpy android rookie.”

Sixty scoffed, yet quietly logged it as a core memory.

📷 (c) Klemen Vrankar

Constellation Guide, Northern Cross

Sadr (γ Cygni)

Some stars are surrounded by the most spectacular backdrops, and Sadr in the constellation of Cygnus is certainly one.

The star itself was a blue giant which has now expanded into its supergiant stage, and it's colour has changed from the blue's you see in the Pleiades cluster to a yellow white, as the increased surface area of the star's temperature lowers, it moves towards the red colour.

It's estimated to only be 12 million years old, compared to the 4,600 million years age of our sun, but very typical of these fast burning massive stars.

While it's distance is 1,800 light years from Earth, the background nebula's and clusters are much further behind it, around 4,000 light years from Earth.