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Swooping and soaring straight down the middle of the Milky Way directly towards each other, Cygnus the swan, and Aquila the eagle are the two great birds of the Milky Way. Cygnus, sometimes referred to as the northern cross, is unmistakable as a huge, long-necked swan with outstretched wings, flying straight down the middle of the Milky Way. And the Milky Way is where the action is. That's where everybody lives. That's where all the stars are. When we look at the Milky Way, we are looking down through almost the entire length of the saucer shaped disk of our galaxy, and seeing billions and billions of stars, and a lot of other things too. When we're not looking at the Milky Way, we are looking up through a relatively thin layer of stars - a few thousand at most - out into the blackness of interstellar space.
This means that a constellation in the middle of the Milky Way is a busy place, and Cygnus is no exception. There are two Messier Objects in Cygnus, both open star clusters.
Cygnus contains three very large, very extraordinary nebulae. On a very dark night, they are visible to the naked eye. And through a telescope their true beauty is revealed.
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