A Notable Double

[Hayduke27]

We got an unexpected break in the clouds before an oncoming snowstorm, and seeing as the skies are so dark I took advantage and stepped out with the binos for a little while.  I enjoyed some nice views of Vega, M57, Albireo, the Pleiades and Hyades, Caroline's Rose, and Mirfak and surrounding area.  To get to the point of this post, as I was scanning around looking for Caroline's Rose I stumbled across Delta Cephei and was stunned.  This little double looks so much like Albireo I couldn't believe it!  What a beautiful little gem hidden up by Cassiopeia!  It's yet another thing making this little section of sky one of my favorites!  Has anybody else noticed this similarity?

[Ags]

I find Delta Cep very strongly colored. One of my firm favorites when i can find it. I would enjoy this region of sky more if there were brighter stars in the area - all of the main stars in Cepheus are borderline naked-eye for me. So navigation is quite tricky on many evenings.

[NGC 1502]

I’m a double star fan but I’d never observed Delta Ceph in spite of it being so historically famous.

My main resource lists it as mag +4.2/6.1 with a very wide 41” separation, so almost any scope at low power should resolve it.

Thanks for bringing it to our attention 👍