How to Observe Algol: The Eclipsing Demon Star Guide
Not all stars shine with a steady glow—some, like Algol in the constellation Perseus, periodically drop in brightness right before your eyes. Observing an eclipsing binary is one of the most rewarding targets for naked-eye stargazers. What Type of Star is Algol? An eclipsing binary is where a dimmer star in a multiple star system passes in front of its brighter counterpart. One of the easiest ways to observe this is to find the star Algol which is a triple star system but consists of one main bright star and another dimmer star that passes in front of it from our perspective. This dimming occurs every two days, twenty hours and forty-eight point eight minutes the change in magnitude can be from +2 to +3.3 and with magnitude the larger the number the dimmer it is. Click to enlarge the Algol star chart To find Algol you must first find the Perseus constellation. To do this find the bright constellation Cassiopeia, near the M103 cluster . Then draw an imagine line down from Gamma Ca...
