Summer, for me, means
binocular astronomy and what could be more natural than turning my astronomy binocular to the "
summer triangle" overhead? That's the trio of bright stars - Deneb, Vega and Altair - that we see overhead on a summer night. Within that triangle, there are objects for
binoculars or
telescopes more fascinating than anything to be found in even the so-called Bermuda Triangle. Take the star Deneb, for instance. In my
Nikon 10x70 binocular, it is a brilliant white point of light, but, in reality it is a true powerhouse of a star. It is the 19th brightest star in the sky, but only because it is so distant. It has an estimated 60,000 times, at least, than the output of light of our sun and a diameter 200 times that of our sun and is a true candidate for a supernova in the relatively short lifetime for a star of a few million years. Vega and Altair are wimps by comparison, though still more luminous than our sun. They are roughly the same brightness as Deneb only because they are much, much closer. In fact, these other two points of the summer triangle are practically next door. Next time you are staring up in the sky on a summner night, keep in mind what those seemingly peaceful points of light we call stars really are