61 Cygni
binary star in the Cygnus constellation
61 Cygni is a binary star system in the northern constellation Cygnus, consisting of a pair of K-type dwarf stars that orbit each other in a period of about 659 years. Of apparent magnitude 5.20 and 6.05, respectively, they can be seen with binoculars in city skies or with the naked eye in rural areas without light pollution.
61 Cygni first attracted the attention of astronomers when its large proper motion was first demonstrated by Giuseppe Piazzi in 1804. In 1838, Friedrich Bessel measured its distance from Earth at about 10.4 light-years, very close to the actual value of about 11.4 light-years; this was the first distance estimate for any star other than the Sun, and the first star to have its stellar parallax measured. Among all stars or stellar systems listed in the latest Gaia catalogues, 61 Cygni has the sixth-highest proper motion, and the highest among all naked-eye visible stars.
Over the course of the twentieth century, several different astronomers reported evidence of a massive planet orbiting one of the two stars, but recent high-precision radial velocity observations have shown that all such claims were unfounded. No planets have been confirmed in this stellar system to date.
Name
61 Cygni is relatively dim, so it does not appear on ancient star maps, nor is it given a name in western or Chinese systems.
The name "61 Cygni" is part of the Flamsteed designation assigned to stars. According to this designation scheme, devised by John Flamsteed to catalog his observations, stars of a particular constellation are numbered in the order of their right ascension, not in Greek letters as the Bayer designation does.
The public source identifies “61 Cygni” as binary star in the Cygnus constellation. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Cygni, binary and star.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q249302. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1804 and 1838.
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This entry incorporates text from “61 Cygni” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.