Albireo

Its story

Albireo marks the head of the Swan and, viewed through even a modest telescope, splits into one of amateur astronomy's most beloved sights: a golden companion paired with a blue one, a perfect chromatic couple. The principal component, an orange K-class giant, shines from about 434 light-years away. Its name, twisted by medieval copyists, holds no coherent meaning in Arabic: a ghost word born of error that tradition came to honour anyway.