The beak of the Swan is marked by
Beta Cygni, better known as Albireo, a lovely gold and blue pair that can be split in a small telescope at low magnification.
Many people's favorite is magnificent Albireo (
Beta Cygni).
The foot of the cross, or the beak of the swan, is marked by the modestly bright, 2nd-magnitude star Albireo (
Beta Cygni).
These 'classical doubles', as I would describe them, often consist of reddish primaries accompanied by bluish-green companions, of which Albireo (
Beta Cygni), Almaach (Gamma Andromedae), Rasalgethi (Alpha Herculis) and 95 Herculis are prominent examples.
You could begin with Albireo (
Beta Cygni) and Rasalgethi (Alpha Herculis), two of the color-contrast pairs that are very high in this sky.
I drew up a double-star list and one by one began to bag its targets: Alpha Ursae Majoris, Epsilon Bootis, Alpha Canum Venaticorum, Gamma Leonis,
Beta Cygni, Alpha Herculis, Epsilon Lyrae....
Gold-and-blue Albireo (
Beta Cygni) is the most famous color-contrast double star in the heavens.
I noted occasional glimpses of the first diffraction ring around the Airy disk when observing Albireo (
Beta Cygni), particularly around the yellow star of this well-known colorful pair.
Beta Cygni (Albireo), at the bottom of the cross, is the star of my great-great-grandfather Sumarlidi Sumarlidason, an Icelander who traveled the globe and left in his effects a timeworn handwritten genealogy that traces back my ancestors name by name for almost 1,700 years.