U Cygni, a very red star at the moment

[Starobserver]

I read a few reports on the Internet in the last few weeks, about U Cygni being a spectacular blood red star at the moment. On the night of the 18th of august it was clear outside, so I decided to go for it! I first tried to locate it with my 15x80 binoculars and the SkyWindow, but without success. But with the 300mm Dobson and the 35mm Panoptic (46x) the dim red star was immediately visible, next to an 8th magnitude white star (HIP100230), a striking pair with a beautiful contrast. U Cygni and HIP100230 are separated by only 1 minute of arc. As usual, I first tried all possible magnifications, but the 22 Nagler showed this little gem at its best. As other observers stated this week, U Cygni indeed was bright red, like a sparkling drop of blood. Simply amazing to really see a star as red as U Cygni with your own eyes. Very impressive!

The contrast with its surroundings was somehow optimal with 22mm Nagler, giving a magnification of 72x and a field of view of 68'. A real bonus was that U Cygni fitted nicely into the same field of view with the magnitude 4 bright yellow-orange Omicron 2 Cygni (or 32 Cygni). After observing and enjoying the field the field of view for 15 minutes, I noticed that HIP 100230, the white "companion" of U Cygni wasn't really white, but a bit yellowish. At the end of my observing session I made a sketch. I only plotted the most important starts, because there were just too many field stars visible.

For more details about the observing session and this wonderful object, follow this link.

[Doc]

I saw U Cygni a few weeks back and agree it's a striking red colour. Great sketch and also a wonderful website.

[iamjulian]

Sounds interesting. I may have a look for this one. Thanks for sharing. I agree, great website.