The eight brightest stars, called "supernovae." New star in the constellation Cygnus (V2467 Cyg) Cygnus - “Flying Star”

Koichi Nishiyama and Fujio Kabashima from Japan made their discovery on March 31st with an electronic camera and a 105mm F/4 lens.

They quickly confirmed their observation with additional photographs taken with a 0.40 m reflector. Nothing was visible until magnitude +13.4 in photographs taken on March 27, but when they checked photographs taken on March 30, the star was +12.4. The good news is it's getting brighter!

This star has been confirmed as nova. As of April 2, its magnitude is 11.0.

New stars can brighten quickly, sometimes by several magnitudes in just a day. These maps should help you focus on a star that rises around midnight and allows you to look at itself around 1:30 - 2:00 am local time (20:30 - 21:00 GMT) in the eastern sky. For now, it takes a 4-inch or larger telescope to detect it.

The nova can reach magnitudes 7 to 16, equivalent to 50,000 to 100,000 times brighter than the Sun, in just a few days.

Nishiyama and Kabashima are on something of a hot streak. Since the information was confirmed, this star became their third discovery of a nova in a month! On March 8, they discovered Nova Cephei 2014 (in the constellation Cepheus) with a magnitude of 11.7, which has now reached around 12, and the 10th magnitude Nova Scorpii 2014 (in the constellation Scorpius), which is now at around 12.5, discovered 26 March. Impressive.

The constellation Cygnus is one of the richest attractions among all the others. Its alpha, Deneb, shines brightly in the summer sky and is one of the brightest stars in the summer sky. This constellation has many double stars, clusters and nebulae.

The constellation Cygnus is very visible in the sky thanks to its characteristic shape of bright stars, which is called the Northern Cross. It belongs to, since it is at this time of year that it rises to its maximum height and is most convenient for observations.

This constellation is located in the southeast in summer and moves south, quite high above the horizon. Finding it is very easy, thanks to the bright star Deneb - this is the alpha in the constellation Cygnus, and the figure resembling a cross. This figure on ancient maps depicts a swan.

Deneb is one of the vertices of the figure called the Summer Triangle. Its other peaks form Vega - alpha, and Altair - alpha Eagle. These three stars are the brightest in the summer sky.

The constellation Cygnus is located against the backdrop of the Milky Way, so there are a lot of interesting objects in it - stars, star clusters, nebulae. For an astronomy lover, armed with even a small telescope, there is great freedom here.

Stars of the constellation Cygnus

This large and wonderful constellation has many interesting stars. Some binaries, such as Albireo, are among the most beautiful pairs, and they can be observed with a small telescope. Each star is different from the others, so let’s look at the most notable ones.

Deneb is the main star in the constellation Cygnus

Deneb, α Cygni, shines against the background of the Milky Way like a diamond. This star is on the list of the brightest stars. The distance to it is enormous - 1640 light years, but it has a brightness of +1.25m.

Such brightness, despite the enormous distance, can be explained simply. Deneb is one of the largest and most powerful stars known today. The diameter of this white supergiant is comparable to the diameter of the earth's orbit, that is, this star is 240 times larger than the Sun, and it emits 67,000 times more light! The sun emits as much light in 140 years as Deneb does in 1 day.

Like all supergiants, the life of Alpha Cygnus is short. It has already used up all its hydrogen, and in a couple of million years it will explode as a supernova. When you look at this star, remember what an incredibly distant, yet unimaginably bright fireball it is.

Albireo - the most beautiful double star

If Deneb is located in the tail of the Cygnus, then Albireo- in his beak. This is the beta constellation, which is at the opposite end of his “cross”.

Albireo is one of the most beautiful star couples. Even with a small telescope, you can easily notice an orange giant with a brightness of 3.4m, and a nearby blue star with a brightness of 5.1m. Their color is clearly visible, and you can admire this pair for a long time. The angular distance between the stars is 34”.

Both stars are physically connected and are part of the same system, revolving around a common center of mass in about 100 thousand years - the distance between them is so great.

In fact, this star is triple. The orange giant has another blue companion, but this pair is very close and cannot be distinguished through a telescope. The distance to this interesting system is 385 light years.

61 Cygni – “Flying Star”

A little away from Deneb you can find an interesting double star called 61 Swans. This pair consists of two orange dwarfs, each much smaller than the Sun. They make a full revolution in 678 years. They can be separated using a small telescope. Although the star can be found with the naked eye, its brightness is low, so it is better to at least use binoculars.

61 Swans is remarkable for its history. This star is located 11 light years from us, that is, quite close. Therefore, its displacement in the sky can be seen, which was done back in 1804 by the Italian astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi. And this was one of the first stars to which the distance was precisely determined, which was another confirmation of Giordano Bruno’s ideas on the structure of the world.

Because of its rapid movement, this star was nicknamed the “Flying Star.”

In the years 50-70, the star 61 Cygni made a lot of noise. Some observations indicated deviations in its trajectory, which were associated with the presence of several planets weighing several times the mass of Jupiter. Since at that time no one had yet discovered planets around other stars, and their very existence was only a theory, this discovery became a real sensation. However, all this was not confirmed, and modern equipment did not detect any exoplanets around 61 Cygni, although there is most likely a dust disk there.

When you point your telescope at the constellation Cygnus, be sure to take a look at this curious star. By the way, she was mentioned several times in science fiction, so she has some fame. And they are simply a beautiful couple.

Nebulae and clusters in the constellation Cygnus

This constellation is rich in various nebulous objects. There are many star clusters and nebulae here. Some of them can be seen even with binoculars, while others will only be accessible to a powerful telescope. Therefore, we will mention here the most striking or remarkable of them.

M 29 – open star cluster

This cluster is also designated NGC 6913, and is located next to the fairly bright star γ Cygni. Its brightness is 7.1m, so it is inaccessible to the naked eye, but even with binoculars this cluster is easy to detect and even see something. In a telescope, even a small one, M 29 reveals itself in all its glory. However, it is best to use a 150mm or larger telescope for observing.

The cluster consists of a small number of stars, about 50 in total. The brightest ones form a quadrangle and a triangle. Because of its shape, the cluster is called the Cooling Tower.

The distance to M 29 is 4000 light years, its size reaches 11 light years, and it is approaching us at a speed of 28 km/s. Because of the large amount of dust and gas between us and this cluster, which contains very hot giants, its stars appear much fainter to us than they really are.

M 39 – a magnificent open cluster

With a brightness of 4.2m, this cluster can be easily found with the naked eye. In Swan it is the brightest of all. Even with 10x binoculars, the M 39 looks very beautiful and impressive. It is 820 light years away from us, and when studying the constellation, be sure to find it - it is located not far from Deneb.

NGC 6811 – open star cluster

This star cluster has a brightness of 6.8m, and is easily found with binoculars. However, the brightest stars in it have a brightness of 9.8m, and to distinguish them you will need at least a small telescope. As a rule, the cluster looks like a small clump of stars, but this appearance is deceptive. In fact, this is a very abundant cluster, and there are more than 1000 stars in it, but the brightness of most is more than 15m, so they are inaccessible to amateur telescopes.

The distance to this interesting cluster is enormous - 3300 light years. And it is interesting because there are few stars in its center, and they are concentrated around. Why the center is empty is a mystery. Therefore, NGC 6811 is an object of close study for the Kepler space telescope.

Veil Nebula - NGC 6960

This is a very impressive diffuse nebula in photographs. It also has other names - Fishing Net and Witch's Broom. It actually resembles something similar.

This nebula is the remnant of a supernova that exploded several thousand years ago. Now it is just a huge gas cloud, stretching over 50 light years. The nebula is so huge that it occupies as much as 3 degrees in the field of view, and its individual, brightest parts are designated in catalogs under their own names. Its brightest part is called the Veil.

To search for the nebula, you can use the star 52 Cygni, with a brightness of 4.2m. However, it is a difficult object to observe visually with amateur telescopes. Narrow-band filters and a large aperture are required to reveal it against the sky. However, it looks good in photographs.

Other parts of this nebula are NGC 6992 and NGC 6995, which are no less spectacular.

Other objects of the Cygnus constellation

Of course, the attractions of the Cygnus constellation are not limited to the listed clusters. There are many other clusters and nebulae in it, but they are much more difficult objects to observe even with powerful amateur telescopes.

For example, in the constellation Cygnus there is a very spectacular nebula NGC 7000, called "North America". In the photograph it really resembles this continent. Its brightness is 4m, however, when observing through binoculars or a telescope, it is unlikely that anything will be visible. But photos using filters turn out well.

Planetary nebula NGC 6826 It is called Twinkling because it is not visible when looking directly at the central star. But if you look with peripheral vision, the nebula becomes noticeable. However, it must be observed through a telescope with an aperture of 130 mm or more, and it is advisable to use light filters. Its brightness is 8.6m, and its size is 0.6’.

Another planetary nebula - NGC 6884, has a brightness of only 10.9m, and is 12 times smaller in size than the planetary Ring Nebula in Lyra. Therefore, this is a rather complex object, which requires a 300 mm telescope to observe.

There is another planetary nebula in Cygnus - NGC 7008, which looks very interesting in photographs, but for observations you need a telescope with an aperture of 250 mm or more.

Reflection emission nebula IC 5146, called “Cocoon” is also a fairly famous object. This nebula has a brightness of 7.2m and its dimensions are 10'x10'. The central star with a brightness of 9.7m can be seen in a small telescope, but the nebula itself appears when using light filters. Interestingly, there is a dark dusty nebula surrounding this gaseous nebula. Although the Cygnus constellation is located mainly against the background of the Milky Way, galaxies can be found in it. For example, a spiral galaxy NGC 6946 called "Fireworks" looks very beautiful and is turned flat towards us. But with a brightness of 9m, it has a surface brightness of only 14m, and to find it you need at least a 150mm telescope.

The Cygnus constellation is very rich in attractions, but not everything can be seen with modest amateur telescopes. But having at least a 150 mm tool, the possibilities increase significantly. Happy owners of 200 mm or more apertures can find not only the objects listed here, but also many others that we have not mentioned due to the complexity of their observations. To search for them, you can use the program = planetarium “Stellarium”, and some are indicated in the atlas, which can be printed on a printer.

We wish you clear skies and an exciting journey through the constellation Cygnus!

Attentiveness test

What bright stars are in the center of the photo below? Write your answer in the comments.

On August 29, 1975, a supernova appeared in the sky in the constellation Cygnus. During a flare, the brilliance of luminaries similar to it increases by tens of magnitudes within a few days. A supernova is comparable in brightness to the entire galaxy in which it erupted, and may even exceed it. We have made a selection of the most famous supernovae.

"Crab Nebula" In fact, it is not a star, but a remnant of it. It is located in the constellation Taurus. The Crab Nebula is a remnant of a supernova explosion called SN 1054, which occurred in 1054. The flare was visible for 23 days with the naked eye, even during daytime. And this despite the fact that it is located at a distance of about 6500 light years (2 kpc) from Earth.

The nebula is now expanding at a speed of about 1,500 kilometers per second. The Crab Nebula gets its name from a drawing by astronomer William Parsons using a 36-inch telescope in 1844. In this sketch, the nebula closely resembled a crab.

SN 1572 (Tycho Brahe's Supernova). It flared up in the constellation Cassiopeia in 1572. Tycho Brahe described his observations of the star he saw.

One evening, when, as usual, I was examining the sky, the appearance of which I was so familiar with, I, to my indescribable surprise, saw near the zenith in Cassiopeia a bright star of extraordinary size. Amazed by the discovery, I didn’t know whether to believe my own eyes. In terms of brilliance, it could only be compared with Venus, when the latter is at its closest distance from the Earth. People gifted with good eyesight could discern this star in a clear sky during the day, even at noon. At night, with a cloudy sky, when other stars were hidden, the new star remained visible through fairly thick clouds.

SN 1604 or Kepler's Supernova. It flared up in the fall of 1604 in the constellation Ophiuchus. And this star is located approximately 20,000 light years from the solar system. Despite this, after the outbreak it was visible in the sky for about a year.

SN 1987A erupted in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. Light from the flare reached Earth on February 23, 1987. The star could be seen with the naked eye in May of the same year. The peak apparent magnitude was +3:185. This is the closest supernova explosion since the invention of the telescope. This star became the first brightest in the 20th century.

SN 1993J is the second brightest star of the 20th century. It erupted in 1993 in the spiral galaxy M81. This is a double star. Scientists guessed this when, instead of gradually fading away, the products of the explosion began to strangely increase in brightness. Then it became clear: an ordinary red supergiant star could not turn into such an unusual supernova. There was an assumption that the flared supergiant was paired with another star.

In 1975, a supernova exploded in the constellation Cygnus. In 1975, such a powerful explosion occurred in the tail of Cygnus that the supernova was visible to the naked eye. This is exactly how she was noticed at the Crimean station by astronomer student Sergei Shugarov. It later turned out that his message was already the sixth. The very first, eight hours before Shugarov, Japanese astronomers saw the star. The new star could be seen without telescopes for a few nights: it was bright only from August 29 to September 1. Then she became an ordinary star of the third magnitude in terms of brilliance. However, during its glow, the new star managed to surpass Alpha Cygnus in brightness. Observers have not seen such bright new stars since 1936. The star was named Nova Cygni 1975, V1500 Cygni, and in 1992, another outburst of a quark star, a multiple explosion of a star, a collision of two massive stars, occurred in the same constellation.

The youngest supernova in our Galaxy is G1.9+0.3. It is about 25,000 light-years away and located in the constellation Sagittarius at the center of the Milky Way. The expansion rate of supernova remnants is unprecedented - more than 15 thousand kilometers per second (this is 5% of the speed of light). This star burst into flames in our Galaxy about 25,000 years ago. On Earth, its explosion could have been observed around 1868.

What astronomical event related to Donbass do you consider the main one? Scratching their heads, many will remember the Gorlovka meteorite. That was a long time ago. In 1973 or 1974. He fell, as they say, strictly on order on Astronomicheskaya Street and almost killed a miner who was repairing the roof of a house. The stone that melted the asphalt was immediately stretched out for souvenirs, and only by chance a few days later a local physicist discovered the unearthly nature of one of the fragments. And then the commissions arrived and confirmed that, yes, it was a meteorite. And they gave it the name “Gorlovka”.

But there are people who know the astronomical situation more subtly. And they will tell you: the main event in this area related to Donbass is the discovery in 1975 of a Novaya Star in the constellation Cygnus by a group of young Donetsk astronomers. One of the group members, Sergei Bely, tells us about this. All his astronomy is in the deep past, but he remembers the discovery and is proud of it.

To begin with, I asked my interlocutor to answer a stupid question, in my own style: “Which constellation best suits Donetsk?”

– We have 88 constellations, if my memory serves me correctly. Maybe bullish Taurus? The most powerful of all celestial images. And a little stubborn. This is exactly the Donetsk character,” said Sergei Bely thoughtfully, and then added that all analogies here will be conventional and far-fetched: the ancient Greeks, according to whose mythology the constellations were named, put a completely different meaning into these images.

And what meaning did Bely himself put into his studies of astronomy? Word to him. We won't interrupt anymore...

– Where did our love for astronomy come from in those days? Of course, for the love of the sky. From the romance of the first space flights, which we followed with bated breath. From Efremov’s novel “The Hour of the Ox” - it was published in the magazine “Technology for Youth”, and we read it to the core. Everyone dreamed of becoming an astronaut, but obviously not everyone could. Astronomy offered us an interesting compromise - it was close to the sky and there was no need to fly into space.

I came to Donetsk in 1971, at the age of 14, from near Brest, where my father served as the head of the border post. I first studied at school No. 9, near the Philharmonic. I once found out that there was an astronomy club at the Palace of Pioneers, and I signed up.

It was there, in the vacant lot behind the Palace of Pioneers, where the new planetarium is now, that I first saw the rings of Saturn. This happened at the very end of 1971. It turns out that this place was already astronomically “prayed for.”

Soon they decided to open some more respectable formation of young astronomy lovers, on the basis of the semi-professional AVR-3 telescope installed there (which meant “achromatic visual refractor, model 3”). This is how the Cosmos club appeared and one of its “fathers” was physics teacher Ilya Fedorovich Shumilo.

We did something there, tried to photograph something, and happily chatted about the sky. And then Yura Onishchenko returned from the army, and things went much more energetically! Yurka was an enthusiast and leader, and he promoted our business, moved it to a more serious level, turned it from a talking shop into a strictly organized corporation, always numbering 10-15 people, mostly of high school age. There was a schedule, schedule, classes, reports.

Yura managed to get us a separate room at the regional station for young technicians, on Kalinovka, near the tram ring, near the waste heap of an old mine. There was also a famous pub there - and we had fun throwing used car rolls down the slope in the direction of the peasants leaving the establishment. At the station we occupied a good room on the second floor. And in a fun, creative atmosphere we began to explore the sky. We photographed objects and tried to find answers to some eternal questions of astronomy. We communicated heartily, celebrated holidays together, boiled potatoes in a kettle... In general, there is something to remember.

A few touches to the portrait of Yura Onishchenko. The man was a great romantic, but also a very good organizer. He was very gifted, knew physics and mathematics very well, and was quick to solve problems that others (like me) had to think about. He had obvious inclinations of a real scientist. He drew well. He took great photographs. He worked well with text and could, in principle, become a good journalist. At the same time, with some twists, like any talent. For example, he had great respect for the leaders of the Third Reich. As a result, our company completely received German nicknames. For example, I was Vaisman - because I was White. I drew IDs, wrote our data in calligraphy, and pasted up photographs. It was easy to run into Shchorsa Street with all this.

We studied astronomy for our own pleasure. But thanks to Yura, we had at least one real scientific program - observing the occultation of stars by the Moon.

In addition, we were engaged in astrophotography of planets, the Moon and eclipses (solar and lunar), and other celestial phenomena. It turned out very well - professional astronomer-photographers did not believe that our photographs were taken in Donetsk and not in the mountains. We shot on different films. There was such a special, low-sensitivity, professional “Mikrat”, it produced very “soft” images.

I had to record celestial phenomena even in the dark, after which I returned home very late, and by that time I was already living on Razdolnaya. And my mother got very nervous if I was so late, she began to tell me about how many people were killed in our microdistrict in the evening. It was even more difficult to ask for time off for night observations - after all, even more people were killed at night. But one time, in early October, I finally begged my mother and went to observe the Draconid meteor shower. I remember it was already quite cold. We lay in sleeping bags on the ground near the planetarium observatory and counted meteors using a special technique. For me it was something incredible! And it doesn’t matter that the next morning I had to go to school according to the usual schedule - no one there cared about my astronomical duties.

And then we began to design our own telescopes. The first to come were some completely handicraft products. We attached various designs to the school telescope, tried to sharpen mirrors from porthole glasses from Konstantinovsky Autoglass. Then there was a second, more serious one, with a worm wheel, and we made some parts ourselves; I personally turned something on a lathe. But the main, most precise work was performed by the mechanic-turner Vasya, a middle-aged man who passionately loved astronomy and joined our circle.

And so we came to the opening of “The New Swan,” the star of the 1975 season.

This was done by Misha Flathead, Petya Sergienko and Andrei Pokladov, the Makeevsky guy - I don’t remember how, all together or independently. On August 29, 1975, Nova exploded in the constellation Cygnus. It exploded in a very interesting way: an object of 19th magnitude grew to almost one - the same as Altair. And she was perfectly visible - in the place where there was nothing yesterday!

How did it all happen? We photographed the Moon. The evening was warm and clear. We took pictures and ran off to sleep. The next day I call Yurka Onishchenko, our leader, and he tells me sensational news about a star in the constellation Cygnus. “Come, we’re trying to identify her here,” he says. When I arrive, the boys are already photographing a section of the sky with a new star and determining its coordinates. And then the question arose about the priority of opening! This was then done by sending a message to the official astronomical institution, which had the authority to register such things. Yurka wrote a telegram, and we sent it first to one authority, and then to another. Well, what if the first telegram doesn’t arrive? And this second telegram was entrusted to be sent to me. So they made me the “discoverer” of the star. My telegram went to LITA - Leningrad Institute of Theoretical Astronomy. And there was a story - at the post office they refused to accept it from me, they demanded a stamp, because the message was going to an official institution. So I didn’t come to an agreement with them, I returned to Kalinovka and at post office number 3 I still sent a message to LITA. But either he was already on edge, or due to laxity, he forgot to indicate the opening time. This is what was reported in the circular of the USSR Academy of Sciences, which I still have in my personal archive. But one way or another, we, Donetsk astronomers, were among the discoverers of the New Star. Which, to be honest, turned out to be a lot throughout the Union...