Star profile
59 Cygni
Variable starWhat is 59 Cygni
59 Cygni lives in the constellation of the Swan some 1,400 light-years out: a blue Be star spinning so fast that it sometimes wraps itself in a visible disc of cast-off gas. Its spectral variations have been logged without pause since 1916, and in the 1970s it crossed two short shell-star phases —the disc grew opaque and eclipsed the star from within. A slow pulse turned into a real chapter of twentieth-century astronomy.
Where it is and when to see it
59 Cygni lies in the northern celestial hemisphere. It is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky. Its best month of the year is September, when it culminates around midnight.
- From London it never sets and culminates about 86° up.
- From New York it culminates about 83° above the horizon.
- From Sydney it culminates about 9° above the horizon.
It can be seen from anywhere north of 42° S.
It ranks no. 31 in brightness among the 137 stars of Cygnus in our catalogue. To find it, start from Deneb, the brightest: it lies about 4° away (a fist at arm's length covers about 10°).
The light you see today left it about 1,400 years ago.
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Astronomical data for 59 Cygni
- Constellation
- Cygnus
- Apparent magnitude
- 4.74
- Distance
- 1418.3 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 314.956° · Dec 47.521°
- Catalogue
- HIP 103632 · HD 200120
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Other stars in Cygnus
Cygnus has 137 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- DenebAlpha Cygni1.25
- SadrGamma Cygni2.23
- AljanahEpsilon Cygni2.48
- 47 Cygni4.61
- Phi Cygni4.68
- AzelfafagePi 1 Cygni4.69
- 8 Cygni4.74
- 34 Cygni4.77