Star profile
Zeta Cepheus
Variable starWhat is Zeta Cepheus
Zeta Cephei is an orange supergiant, cold and immense, whose light sets out more than eight centuries before reaching us. Its brightness barely shifts, like the slow breath of something too large to beat quickly. In the constellation that evokes an Ethiopian king, it occupies one of the throne's most stable seats —that of sustained glow, not fleeting flash.
Where it is and when to see it
Zeta 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 83° up.
- From New York it never sets and culminates about 72° up.
- From Sydney it never rises above the horizon.
It can be seen from anywhere north of 32° S.
It ranks no. 4 in brightness among the 95 stars of Cepheus in our catalogue. To find it, start from Alderamin, the brightest: it lies about 8° away (a fist at arm's length covers about 10°).
The light you see today left it about 840 years ago.
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Astronomical data for Zeta Cepheus
- Constellation
- Cepheus
- Apparent magnitude
- 3.39
- Distance
- 836.4 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 332.714° · Dec 58.201°
- Catalogue
- HIP 109492 · HD 210745
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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
- Eta Cepheus3.41
- Iota Cepheus3.50
- Delta Cepheus4.07
- Epsilon Cepheus4.18
- Theta Cepheus4.21