Cygnus (Hansa)
Cygnus, resembles the swan when stars in this constellation are imaginarily connected, as per Indian mythology!
Where should I see…Lyra and Draco, is the constellation which is towards west of Cygnus constellation.
If you move your eyes towards east, you will see another constellation named Lacerta and Pegasus. In the North and South of Cygnus, you will find Cepheus and Vulpecula constellations respectively. Cygnus is halfway between celestial equator and North Pole, and so is fully part of Northern Hemisphere.
It covers up 804 square degree area of the sky. Area wise it is 16th largest constellation in the sky.
When and What can I see…We can gaze at this beautiful swan shape of Cygnus constellation from April to
November, as seen from India.
All you need is your naked eyes other than clear skies to see 209 stars of this constellations, as they are the one which are brighter than the lower limit of our naked eyes (i.e. 6.5 apparent magnitude) to see faintest stars.. The brightest star of this constellation is Deneb.
Constellations are made up of single, binary (apparent and absolute), multiple and variable stars. Out of total 209 stars of different types, here is the list of 20 brightest stars as per their nature:
| Binary / Multiple Star system | Variable Stars | Binary and Variable Stars | Single stars |
| Al Janah | 5 | Deneb | 3 |
| 2 | – | Sadr | – |
| – | – | Fawaris | – |
| – | – | Alberio | – |
| – | – | 5 | – |
| 3 | 5 | 9 | 3 |
As per Hindi mythology, there are no such known stories for this constellation.
Deep Sky Objects…
Crescent Nebula or NGC 6888 || Emission Nebula
Veil Nebula || Supernova Remnant
M29 or NGC 6913 || Open Cluster
All the stars that we see naked eyes, all belong to our own, Milky way galaxy (Akash Ganga Tara Vishv). Bright stars can be seen naked eye and faint one through telescope. But the curtain of sky that we see in 2D is actually a huge universe we are talking about, with 3 dimension. There are many nebulous objects visible in every constellations. They differ widely by distances and nature. Like Emission Nebula, Reflecting Nebula, Absorption Nebula, Star Birth Nebula, Supernova Remnants (SNR) and Open Stars cluster which are within the disk of our own Milky Way galaxy. Globular cluster are also found, which are in the halo of our galaxy and some most distant objects like galaxies are also visible through telescope. Such objects are defined as “Deep Sky Objects”.
In this constellation there are 90 such different types of Deep Sky Objects observed. Below is the list of 20 brightest Deep Sky Objects:
M39 or NGC 7092 || Open Cluster
North American Nebula or NGC 7000 || Emission Nebula
North America Nebula || diff wavelengths
| Galaxy | Open Cluster | Globular Cluster | Nebula | Supernova Remnant | |
| Naked eye visibility | – | M39 | – | North America Nebula | – |
| – | 1 | – | – | – | |
| Visible through Telescope | – | M29 | – | Crescent Nebula | Veil Nebula |
| – | Foxhead Neula | – | Cacoon Nebula | 2 | |
| – | 8 | – | – | – | |
| – | 12 | – | 3 | 3 |
Pelican Nebula or IC 5070 || Emission Nebula
Sadr Regio or IC 1318 || Diffuse Emission Nebula
Cygnus Loop || Supernova Remnant