Star profile
6 Cepheus
Variable starWhat is 6 Cepheus
6 Cephei is a variable blue B-type star nearly 2,000 light-years away, a vast distance that betrays its true power: to be visible from so far it must outshine the Sun by thousands of times. It belongs to Cepheus, the constellation that lent its name to the Cepheid variables —pulsating stars that allowed Henrietta Leavitt to measure the scale of the cosmos. Its light set out when the Roman Empire was still a young idea.
Where it is and when to see it
6 Cepheus lies in the northern celestial hemisphere. It is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky. Its best month of the year is October, when it culminates around midnight.
- From London it never sets and culminates about 77° up.
- From New York it never sets and culminates about 66° up.
- From Sydney it never rises above the horizon.
It can be seen from anywhere north of 25° S.
It ranks no. 33 in brightness among the 95 stars of Cepheus in our catalogue. To find it, start from Alderamin, the brightest: it lies about 2° away (a fist at arm's length covers about 10°).
The light you see today left it about 2,000 years ago.
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Astronomical data for 6 Cepheus
- Constellation
- Cepheus
- Apparent magnitude
- 5.19
- Distance
- 1989.0 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 319.843° · Dec 64.872°
- Catalogue
- HIP 105268 · HD 203467
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Other stars in Cepheus
Cepheus has 95 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- AlderaminAlpha Cepheus2.45
- ErraiGamma Cepheus3.21
- AlfirkBeta Cepheus3.23
- HIP 194615.10
- HIP 1083175.11
- HIP 1072305.18
- 30 Cepheus5.19
- HIP 1095725.24