How to Find Albireo: Double Star in the Summer Triangle

In this article we are going to cover one of the most strikingly contrasting pair of stars in the night sky, Albireo.

Is Albireo a True Binary Star?

While long celebrated as the night sky's most famous binary star, recent measurements from ESA’s Gaia satellite suggest Albireo A and Albireo B are likely an optical double star rather than a gravitationally bound pair, as they are moving through space at different speeds and directions. An optical binary is where it only looks like a binary from the perspective of Earth due to a line-of-sight effect.

However, we will operate under the assumption that they are in fact a binary star system. So, to find Albireo you first must find the Summer Triangle I discuss how to find the Summer Triangle in this article.

Click to enlarge Albireo star chart

First you need to look for the bright stars Deneb, Vega and Altair then once you have found the Summer Triangle, look at Deneb and you will notice the Northern Cross asterism then head down to the long point of the cross and that will be Albireo.

What Does Albireo Look Like Through a Telescope?

One of the great things about Albireo is that it easy to find with a telescope or a pair of binoculars. It is also easy to split with a small telescope. If you have ever had doubts about stars having colours then Albireo will dispel those doubts for you. When looking at the pair, even through a low-magnification eyepiece (30x–50x) in a small telescope readily splits the pair, you will see that the largest star A has a bright orange glow and star B is a smaller with a bright blue colour.

To see what Albireo looks like through a telescope please watch the episode below to see, I have also created an image by using a set of LRGB filters. These filters are luminance, red, green, and blue. These filters enable images the true colour of astronomical objects to be captured, even with a monochrome camera.

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