Generalities: it is a big  rich constellation characterizing the northern sky. It is sometimes called the Northern Cross for its peculiar  form. It contains bright stars and very interesting objects of the deep sky. It transits at midnight in July.

Origins and mythology: this constellation represents the Swan into which Zeus was transformed to win the favour of Leda, the wife of  the Spartan king.

Stars: the Swan shows four bright stars below magnitude 3 and  14 stars below magnitude 4 altogether. The brightest star is Deneb, of magnitude 1.25, the nineteenth star of the whole sky. Deneb is of white color, and it is very far, about 1,600 light-years far. With Vega (of the Lyre) and Altar (of the Eagle) it forms the famous triangle of bright stars that dominate the summer sky. Other bright stars are gamma (Sadr), of magnitude 2.20, delta (m=2.87) and epsilon (Gienah, m=2.46), which form the unmistakable high figure in the summer sky with Deneb. Beta, named Albireo, is also remarkable, it is less bright, but  one of the most beautiful double stars of the whole sky; (one of its components is in fact white blue, while the other one is yellow-orange).

Table of stars brighter than magnitude 3.5
 
 

Star	Proper name	Magnitude	Spectrum	Colour	Distance (light-years)	Notes
Alpha	Deneb	1.25	A2	white	1825
Gamma	Sadr	2.20	F8	yellow	750
Epsilon	Gienah	2.46	K0	orange	81
Delta		2.87	A0	white	160
Beta	Albireo	3.08	K5	orange	390	It has a prospectic companion with white-blue colour.
Zeta		3.20	G8	orange	390

Other objects: it contains two nice open clusters, which can be easily observed even by simple binoculars: M29 and M39. Moreover the  Swan is characterized  by wide nebulas that are well observable only in long-exposure  photos: the goatee of the Swan and the Nebula North America.

Go back to constellations index
 

Go back to Home Page