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Cepheus (constellation)
 
 
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Cepheus ( or ) is a constellation
Constellation

A constellation is a group of stars that appear to have a physical proximity in the sky. The stars in a constellation are often vastly distant from each other, but they appear close to each other from the perspective of Earth....
 in the northern sky. It is named after Cepheus, King of Aethiopia
Cepheus, King of Aethiopia

In Greek mythology, Cepheus was ruler of the Phoenician nation of Ethiopia .Cepheus' parentage is usually given as Belus and Achiroe, making him the brother of Danaus, King of Libya, and Aegyptus, King of Egypt....
 in Greek mythology
Greek mythology

Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the Ancient Greece concerning their List of Greek mythological figures#Immortals and Greek hero cult, Cosmology#Metaphysical cosmology, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices....
, and is considered to represent a king. It was one of the 48 constellations listed by the 1st century astronomer Ptolomey, and remains one of the 88 modern constellations.
lass="link1" onMouseover='showByLink("m1237114",this)' onMouseout='hide("m1237114")'href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Gamma_Cephei">? Cephei
Gamma Cephei

Gamma Cephei , traditionally named Errai, Er Rai, and or Alrai, is a binary star approximately 45 light-years away in the constellation of Cepheus ....
 is a binary star
Binary star

A binary star is a star system consisting of two stars orbiting around their common center of mass. The brighter star is called the primary and the other is its companion star or secondary....
 approximately 50 light years away from Earth. The system consists of an orange subgiant and a red dwarf
Red Dwarf

Red Dwarf is a United Kingdom science fiction television situation comedy Media franchise, primarily comprising eight series of a television sitcom that ran on BBC Two between 1988 and 1999 and gained a cult following....
.






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Cepheus ( or ) is a constellation
Constellation

A constellation is a group of stars that appear to have a physical proximity in the sky. The stars in a constellation are often vastly distant from each other, but they appear close to each other from the perspective of Earth....
 in the northern sky. It is named after Cepheus, King of Aethiopia
Cepheus, King of Aethiopia

In Greek mythology, Cepheus was ruler of the Phoenician nation of Ethiopia .Cepheus' parentage is usually given as Belus and Achiroe, making him the brother of Danaus, King of Libya, and Aegyptus, King of Egypt....
 in Greek mythology
Greek mythology

Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the Ancient Greece concerning their List of Greek mythological figures#Immortals and Greek hero cult, Cosmology#Metaphysical cosmology, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices....
, and is considered to represent a king. It was one of the 48 constellations listed by the 1st century astronomer Ptolomey, and remains one of the 88 modern constellations.

Notable features


Stars

? Cephei
Gamma Cephei

Gamma Cephei , traditionally named Errai, Er Rai, and or Alrai, is a binary star approximately 45 light-years away in the constellation of Cepheus ....
 is a binary star
Binary star

A binary star is a star system consisting of two stars orbiting around their common center of mass. The brighter star is called the primary and the other is its companion star or secondary....
 approximately 50 light years away from Earth. The system consists of an orange subgiant and a red dwarf
Red Dwarf

Red Dwarf is a United Kingdom science fiction television situation comedy Media franchise, primarily comprising eight series of a television sitcom that ran on BBC Two between 1988 and 1999 and gained a cult following....
. Due to the precession of the equinoxes
Precession of the equinoxes

In astronomy, precession refers to a gravitationally-induced slow but continuous change in an astronomical body's rotational axis or orbital path....
, ? Cephei will be the pole star
Pole star

A pole star is a visible star, especially a prominent one, that is approximately aligned with the Earth's axis of rotation; that is, a star whose apparent position is close to one of the celestial poles, and which lies directly overhead when viewed from the Earth's North Pole or South Pole....
 between AD 3000 and 5200
6th millennium

The sixth millennium is a period of time that will begin on January 1, 5001, and will end on December 31, 6000....
, with the closest approach to the north celestial pole around AD 4000. The primary component is orbited by a planet
Extrasolar planet

An extrasolar planet, or exoplanet, is a planet beyond the Solar System, orbiting a star other than the Sun. As of February 2009, 342 exoplanets are listed in the Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia....
.

d Cephei
Delta Cephei

Delta Cephei is a binary star system approximately 891 light-years away in the constellation of Cepheus . The names Alrediph, Al Radif or variants are derived from the Arabic "??????" , or "the Follower"....
 is the prototype Cepheid variable
Cepheid variable

A Cepheid variable or Cepheid is a member of a particular class of variable stars, notable for a fairly tight correlation between their period of Radial pulsations and absolute luminosity....
. It was discovered to be variable
Variable star

A star is classified as variable if its apparent magnitude as seen from Earth changes over time, whether the changes are due to variations in the star's actual luminosity, or to variations in the amount of the star's light that is blocked from reaching Earth....
 by John Goodricke
John Goodricke

John Goodricke Fellow of the Royal Society was an eminent and profoundly deaf amateur astronomer. He is best known for his observations of the variable star Algol in 1782....
 in 1784. It varies between 3.5m
Apparent magnitude

The apparent magnitude of a celestial body is a measurement of its brightness as seen by an observer on Earth, normalized to the value it would have in the absence of the Earth's atmosphere....
 and 4.3m over a period around 5.4 days.

There are three red supergiant
Red supergiant

Red supergiants are supergiant stars of spectral classification K or M. They are the largest stars in the universe in terms of volume, although they are not the most massive....
s in the constellation that are visible to the naked eye µ Cephei
Mu Cephei

Mu Cephei , also known as Herschel's Garnet Star, is a red supergiant star in the constellation Cepheus . It is one of the List of largest stars and most List of most luminous stars known in the Milky Way....
 is known as Herschel's Garnet Star due to its deep red colour. It is a semiregular variable star
Semiregular variable star

Semiregular variable stars are Red giant or supergiants of intermediate and late spectral type showing considerable periodicity in their light changes, accompanied or sometimes interrupted by various irregularities....
 that varies between 3.4m and 5.1m over a period of 730 days. The star is around 11.8 AU
Astronomical unit

An astronomical unit is a unit of length based on the mean distance from the Earth to the Sun. The precise value of the AU is currently accepted as 149,597,870,691 Plus-minus sign 6 metres ....
 in radius. If it were placed at the centre of our Solar System
Solar System

The Solar System consists of the Sun and those Astronomical object bound to it by gravity: the eight planets and five dwarf planets, their 173 known Natural satellite, and billions of Small Solar System body....
, it would extend to the orbit of Saturn. Like µ Cep, VV Cephei
VV Cephei

VV Cephei is an Binary star#Eclipsing binaries star system located in the constellation Cepheus , approximately 3,000 light years from Earth.A red supergiant fills the system's Roche lobe when closest to its companion blue star, the latter appearing to be on the main sequence....
 is also variable, ranging from 4.8m and 5.4m over a period around 20 years. The third red supergiant is HR 8164, whose apparent magnitude is 5.66m. Each of the stars are among the largest known.

Kruger 60
Kruger 60

Kruger 60 is a binary star system composed of Kruger 60 A and Kruger 60 B components, both of which are red dwarf stars. These stars orbit each other every 44.6 years....
 is a 11th magnitude binary star consisting of two red dwarfs. The star system is one of the nearest being only 13 light years away from Earth.

Deep sky objects

NGC 188
NGC 188

NGC 188 is an open cluster in the constellation Cepheus . It was discovered by John Herschel in 1825.Unlike most open clusters that drift apart after a few million years because of the gravitational interaction of our galaxy, NGC 188 lies far above the plane of the galaxy and is one of the most ancient of open clusters....
 is an open cluster
Open cluster

An open cluster is a star cluster of up to a few thousand stars that were formed from the same giant molecular cloud, and are still loosely gravity to each other....
 that has the distinction of being the closest open cluster to the north celestial pole, as well as one of the oldest known open clusters. The Fireworks Galaxy (NGC
New General Catalogue

The New General Catalogue is a well-known astronomical catalog of deep sky objects in amateur astronomy. It contains 7,840 objects, known as the NGC objects....
 6946) is a spiral galaxy
Spiral galaxy

A spiral galaxy is a galaxy belonging to one of the three main galaxy morphological classification originally described by Edwin Hubble in his 1936 work ?The Realm of the Nebulae? and, as such, forms part of the Hubble sequence....
 in which eight supernova
Supernova

A supernova is a Astronomy#Stellar astronomy explosion. Supernovae are extremely luminous and cause a burst of radiation that often briefly outshines an entire galaxy, before fading from view over several weeks or months....
e have been observed, more than in any other galaxy
Galaxy

A galaxy is a massive, gravitation system that consists of stars and stellar remnants, an interstellar medium of gas and cosmic dust, and an important but poorly-understood component tentatively dubbed dark matter....
. The nebula NGC 7538
NGC 7538

NGC 7538, near the more famous Bubble Nebula, is located in the constellation Cepheus . It is located about 9,100 light years away from earth. It is home to the biggest yet discovered protostar which is about 300 times the size of our Solar System....
 is home to the largest yet discovered protostar
Protostar

A protostar is a large star that forms by contraction out of the gas of a giant molecular cloud in the interstellar medium. The protostellar phase is an early stage in the process of star formation....
.

Vizualizations

The stars of Cepheus form a shape approximately like a box with a triangle on top. When fainter stars visible to the naked eye are included, Cepheus can be interpreted as looking like a king with a crown (upside down with respect to the ecliptic).

Mythology

Together with other constellations nearby (Andromeda
Andromeda (constellation)

Andromeda is a constellation in the northern sky. It is named after Andromeda , the princess of a mythological kingdom Ethiopia in Greek mythology....
, Perseus
Perseus (constellation)

Perseus is a constellation in the northern sky, named after the Greek hero Perseus. It was one of the 48 constellations listed by the 1st century astronomer Ptolemy, and remains one of the 88 modern constellations defined by the International Astronomical Union....
, Cassiopeia
Cassiopeia (constellation)

Cassiopeia is a constellation in the northern sky. In Greek mythology it was considered to represent the vain queen Cassiopeia , who boasted about her unrivaled beauty....
, and possibly Pegasus
Pegasus (constellation)

Pegasus is a constellation in the northern sky, named after the winged horse Pegasus in Greek mythology. It was one of the 48 constellations listed by the 1st century astronomer Ptolemy, and remains one of the 88 modern constellations....
), and the constellation Cetus
Cetus

Cetus is a constellation in the northern sky. Its name refers to Cetus , a sea monster in Greek mythology, although it is often called 'the whale' today....
 below Cepheus, this may be the source of the myth of the Boast of Cassiopeia, with which it is usually identified.

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