Star profile
61 Cygni
Variable starWhat is 61 Cygni
61 Cygni is the star that resized the universe. In 1838 Friedrich Bessel made the first successful stellar parallax measurement and chose this orange dwarf in the Swan, proving that stars sit at vast yet measurable distances. Just 11.4 light-years away, it is one of the Sun's closest neighbours and races across the sky so fast that Piazzi once nicknamed it «the Flying Star».
Where it is and when to see it
61 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 August: the Sun sits at the opposite point of the sky and the star culminates around midnight. How high it climbs above the horizon depends on the latitude you watch from.
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The signature wall
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A signature without a lock can be replaced by someone else's. The lock makes the signature permanent and lets you choose a symbolic name for the star, always shown next to the star's catalogue identifier. How the lock works
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A public signature from a real person. The chosen name is a symbolic denomination within Stelvia, with no official standing or IAU recognition: the sky is not for sale and belongs to no one.
Astronomical data for 61 Cygni
- Constellation
- Cygnus
- Apparent magnitude
- 5.20
- Distance
- 11.4 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 316.722° · Dec 38.749°
- Catalogue
- HIP 104214 · HD 201091
A symbolic commemorative gift: neither the signature nor the chosen name implies ownership of the star or recognition by the IAU.
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
- 4 Cygni5.17
- HIP 964595.17
- 19 Cygni5.18
- 71 Cygni5.22
- HIP 999685.27