The Cygnus Fairy Ring

[Stu]

I read about this asterism a few years ago, and have somehow never remembered to look for it when out observing with Cygnus well placed.

I had the 8” f8 out last night and made a failed attempt to find it, but didn’t have my TelRad fitted and gave up. Tonight, I was out again with the same scope, and made sure both TelRad and 10x60 RACI were aligned properly, and gave it another go. I used my new to me 22mm Nagler which gives 1.1 degrees fov at x72.

I started at Eta Cygni, and star hopped in the general direction of Bas 6, a mag 7.7 OC. I searched for the star H1470 in SkySafari which is one of the more prominent stars in the fairy ring, and this  is just over half a degree from Bas 6.

Arriving at Bas 6, and I saw precisely nothing there! A little to the East was a nice triangle shaped cluster of faint stars, so I knew I was in the right place as this matched SkySafari. From here it was just a short hop to the ring.

I confess I was a little underwhelmed at first, but then I guess they are only mag 7 to 9 or so stars, and my dark adaptation wasn’t great. I gave it some time, and then the ring itself became clearer, consisting of a series of wide spaced (roughly 30” to 60”) doubles. H1470 was quite prominent as an orange/red star.

This link is to where I first read about it:

https://rogerivester.com/2016/09/10/chaples-arc-and-the-cygnus-fairy-ring-asterism-in-cygnus/
 

So, give it a go and see what you think.

Whilst out, my little eight year old came to join me for a while. I showed her some easy targets, M31, M57 and the DC. I then tried her on the Double Double and although this took some more patience with nailing the focus for her, she eventually got it. I knew she was seeing it as she correctly described the orientations of the star pairs without me telling her, I just asked what was different between the two.

We finished off with Jupiter and Saturn, nice to have a little companion. I may pop out again later, although the seeing is a bit ropey.

[RobertI]

Thanks Stu, I’ll have a bash at this if I can get out this weekend. 👍

[Knighty2112]

Doesn’t show much on Skysafari, but I’ll aim for it next time I’m out. 👍🏻

[Stu]

32 minutes ago, Knighty2112 said:

Doesn’t show much on Skysafari, but I’ll aim for it next time I’m out. 👍🏻

No, it’s quite subtle, easy to miss. This is it….