This object is far beyond everything an amateur can reveal. It is a radio galaxy of 18th mag. On long exposure photographs a pair of fuzzy blobs a revealed. This galaxy is either undergoing an explosion or is colliding with another galaxy. For information and pictures see this site .
Gas falling into the star is heated so much that it radiates in the x-ray range of the spectrum.
The signals of Cygnus X-1 show no periodicites. They are completely irregular and fluctuate within the 1000th part of a second. This indicates a very compact object. This and the fact that there was no hint of eclipsing in the spectrum, made it difficult to see whether or not this is a binary system. It took highly precise measurements to find the 13th mag star HDE 226868 at the position of the x-ray source.