Cygnus

Map created in Guide 7.0 with the figure outline based on Johannes Hevelius' Uranographia (1690). Click on the object's name to access its image or click on the name of adjacent constellation to see its map.

Cygnus commemorates the Swan - a disguise which Zeus used to seduce Leda. The children of that affair (hatched from an egg) were Pollux and Helen (of Troy fame) as well as Castor, fathered by Leda's husband, King Tyndareus of Sparta. Castor and Pollux grace the winter sky as the constellation Gemini.

Cygnus occupies the overhead region of the summer Milky Way. This areafull of clusters and nebulae, so it might have been difficult to pick up the most favourite target if Cygnus was not a home to the Veil supernova remnant as well.

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© Jan Wisniewski