Cygnus

      Cygnus was a friend of the youth Phaethon. Though Phaethon was mortal, his father was Helius, the sun god, who supposedly carried the sun across the sky each in his chariot. Paaethon beseeched his father to let him drive the chariot. Phaethon beseeched his father to let him drive the chariot one day. But Phaethon drove recklessly and lost control. Zeus had to save the Earth from the sun's heat by hurling a thunderbolt at the charoit. Phaethon fell into a river and Cygnus, his friend, plunged in to search for him. Helius changed Cygnus into a swan and placed him in the sky.

      In the sky, the constellation Cygnus lies along the Milky Way. Its brightest stars mark the Northern Cross. Cygnus, with the bright star Deneb in the swan's tail, appears high in the summer sky. The three bright stars Deneb, Vega (in the constellation of Lyra), and Altair(in the constellation of Aquila) mark the Summer Triangle. Altair is about 40^o from Deneb and Vega.

      Albireo, the bright star at the head od the Northern Cross and of Cygnus, is a very pretty double star. With binoculars, you cna see that it consists of two stars of different colors.

The Milky Way in cygnus includes the Northern Cross.

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