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Many pictures are links to larger versions. Click here for the “Best images of the OTOP” Gallery and more information. Albireo (β Cygni) is a star system marking the beak of Cygnus, the swan. Through the telescope, we see two components shining in contrasting colors, golden-orange and blue. It turns out that the fainter blue component is actually a binary. It is unknown, though, if the bright gold component makes this a true triple star system or if it is just passing by. Albireo is about 430 light-years away. The Double-Double (ε Lyrae) looks like two stars in binoculars, but a good telescope shows that both of these two are themselves binaries. However, there may be as many as ten stars in this system! The distant pairs are about 0.16 light-year apart and take about half a million years to orbit one another. The Double-Double is about 160 light-years from Earth. In the handle of the Big Dipper,Mizar & Alcor (ζ & 80 Ursae Majoris) or the “Horse & Rider” form a naked-eye double star. They are traveling through space together about 80 lightyears away from us, separated by about a light-year. However, it is unknown if they are actually orbiting each other. A telescope splits Mizar itself into two stars, but these both are again doubles, bringing the total in this system to six. "Double Cluster" (NGC 884 and NGC 869): These two star clusters are a treat for binoculars and telescope alike. Each is a congregation of many hundred stars around 50-60 light years in diameter. These clusters are both about 7500 light years away. M8: The "Lagoon Nebula." A huge cloud of gas and dust beside an open cluster of stars (NGC 6530). The Lagoon is a stellar nursery, 4,100 lightyears away, towards the galactic core. M13: The "Great Globular Cluster in Hercules" was discovered by Edmund "Comet" Halley in 1714. It is 22,000 lightyears away, and light would need over a century to traverse its diameter. M31: The Andromeda Galaxy, our nearest major galactic neighbor. It is a spiral galaxy, lies 2,500,000 lightyears away and has a diameter of 220,000 lightyears. This galaxy contains as much material as 1.5 trillion suns. Venus, the second planet, is the brightest natural object in the sky other than the Sun and Moon and is often erroneously called the “morning star” or “evening star.” It is completely wrapped in sulfuric acid clouds and its surface is hot enough to melt lead. Mars, the red planet, has a thin carbon dioxide atmosphere, clouds, dust storms, and polar caps made of dry ice. Images of dry riverbeds from orbiting spacecraft show us that liquid water once flowed on the Martian surface. Saturn, the second-largest planet in the Solar System, is known for its showy but thin rings made of ice chunks as small as dust and as large as buildings. Its largest moon, Titan, has an atmosphere and hydrocarbon lakes; at least 61 smaller moons orbit Saturn. Uranus, the seventh planet from the Sun, was discovered by Sir William Herschel in 1781. It has a dark set of rings and at least 27 moons. Uranus's axis of rotation is almost 90 degrees from those of the other planets, as if Uranus has been tipped onto its side. The same side of the Moon always faces Earth because the lunar periods of rotation and revolution are the same. The surface of the moon is covered with impact craters and lavafilled basins. The Moon is about a fourth of Earth's diameter and is about 30 Earth-diameters away. M57: The Ring Nebula. This remnant of a dead star looks exactly as it's name says - a ring or doughnut shape cloud of gas. The nebula is about 2.6 lightyears across and lies about 2,300 lightyears away. Coathanger Cluster: Also called Cr 399, or Brocchi's Cluster, this close open cluster reminds me of my hall closet. Chaotic stellar orbital motion can sometimes make interesting shapes! The Summer Triangle is an astronomical asterism involving an imaginary triangle drawn on the northern hemisphere's celestial sphere, with its defining vertices at Altair, Deneb, and Vega, the brightest stars in the three constellations of Aquila, Cygnus, and Lyra, respectively. Your Telescope Operator and Guide. Thank you for joining me this evening! See you soon!! Your Telescope Operator and Guide. Thank you for joining me this evening! See you soon!! The web page for the program in which you just participated is at Nightly Observing Program. Most of the above images were taken as part of the Overnight Telescope Observing Program. For more information on this unique experience please visitOvernight Telescope Observing Program. Copyright © 2016 Kitt Peak Visitor Center