Star profile
Pi Cepheus
What is Pi Cepheus
Pi Cephei is a yellow triple system: an inner pair completing its dance every year and a half, while a more distant third star takes about 160 years to round its course. The combined light reaches the eye as a single point, but hides a piece of celestial clockwork 247 light-years away, in the northern reach where myth placed the king of Ethiopia.
Where it is and when to see it
Pi 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 November: 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
Stelvia's sky works like a signature wall: anyone can leave their name and a message on a real star, and that signature goes up on the map for everyone to read. Signing is free.
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 Pi Cepheus
- Constellation
- Cepheus
- Apparent magnitude
- 4.41
- Distance
- 246.7 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 346.974° · Dec 75.387°
- Catalogue
- HIP 114222 · HD 218658
A symbolic commemorative gift: neither the signature nor the chosen name implies ownership of the star or recognition by the IAU.
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
- Nu Cepheus4.25
- KurhahXi Cepheus4.26
- Kappa Cepheus4.38
- HIP 1024314.52
- 11 Cepheus4.55