61 Cygni

A Dictionary of Astronomy

61 Cygni A double star 11.4 l.y. away in Cygnus, consisting of a K5 and a K7 dwarf, magnitudes 5.2 and 6.1, orbiting with a period of 650 years or so. It has the greatest proper motion of any naked-eye star, 5″.2 per year (first measured by G.Piazzi, whence the obsolete name Piazzi's Flying Star), and was the first star to have its parallax measured, by F. W.Bessel in 1838.

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© A Dictionary of Astronomy 1997, originally published by Oxford University Press 1997.