Star profile
Azelfafage
Pi 1 Cygni · Cygnus
Hot blue starWhat is Azelfafage
Azelfafage is a hot blue star in Cygnus, whose name, from the Arabic «aẓ-ẓulfah», seems to refer to a tuft of feathers on the celestial bird's neck. At 1,726 light-years, it is among the most distant stars visible to the unaided eye on a dark night: the light defining it tonight set out around the third century, when the Roman Empire was still wrestling with crisis and reform, and no one on Earth yet spoke of «Cygnus».
Where it is and when to see it
Azelfafage 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 90° up.
- From New York it never sets and culminates about 80° up.
- From Sydney it culminates about 5° above the horizon.
It can be seen from anywhere north of 39° S.
It ranks no. 29 in brightness among the 137 stars of Cygnus in our catalogue. To find it, start from Deneb, the brightest: it lies about 12° away (a fist at arm's length covers about 10°).
The light you see today left it about 1,700 years ago.
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Astronomical data for Azelfafage
- Constellation
- Cygnus
- Apparent magnitude
- 4.69
- Distance
- 1725.9 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 325.524° · Dec 51.190°
- Catalogue
- HIP 107136 · HD 206672
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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
- 63 Cygni4.56
- 47 Cygni4.61
- Phi Cygni4.68
- 59 Cygni4.74
- 8 Cygni4.74