Star profile

20 Cygni

3D likeness based on its real data · class K · ~4,200 K

What is 20 Cygni

20 Cygni is an orange giant in the Swan, swollen past a dozen solar radii and shining some fifty times brighter than our star. Its tone is warm, deep amber, just over two hundred light-years out. When the light now slipping into the atmosphere set off, the European Baroque was at its height and nobody yet suspected that warm dot was so unreachably far.

Where it is and when to see it

20 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, when it culminates around midnight.

From London it never sets and culminates about 89° up.
From New York it never sets and culminates about 78° up.
From Sydney it culminates about 3° above the horizon.

It can be seen from anywhere north of 37° S.

It ranks no. 47 in brightness among the 137 stars of Cygnus in our catalogue. To find it, start from Deneb, the brightest: it lies about 11° away (a fist at arm's length covers about 10°).

The light you see today left it about 200 years ago.

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Astronomical data for 20 Cygni

Constellation: Cygnus
Apparent magnitude: 5.03
Distance: 202.5 light years
Coordinates (J2000): RA 297.657° · Dec 52.988°
Catalogue: HIP 97635 · HD 188056

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Other stars in Cygnus

Cygnus has 137 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.

See all 137 stars in Cygnus