Alpha Cephei (α Cephei, abbreviated Alpha Cep, α Cep), officially named Alderamin , is a

second magnitude star Apparent magnitude () is a measure of the brightness of a star or other astronomical object observed from Earth. An object's apparent magnitude depends on its intrinsic luminosity, its distance from Earth, and any extinction of the object's lig ...

in the

constellation A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms Asterism (astronomy), a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object. The origins of the e ...

of Cepheus near the

northern pole Northern Pole (北极 in Simplified Chinese, ''běi jí'' in Pinyin) is a traditional Chinese asterism found in the Purple Forbidden enclosure (紫微垣 in Simplified Chinese, ''zǐ wēi yuán'' in Pinyin). It consists of five stars found in the ...

. The star is relatively close to

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...

at 49

light year A light-year, alternatively spelled light year, is a large unit of length used to express astronomical distances and is equivalent to about 9.46 trillion kilometers (), or 5.88 trillion miles ().One trillion here is taken to be 1012 ...

s (''ly'').

Nomenclature

''α Cephei'' ( Latinised to ''Alpha Cephei'') is the star's

Bayer designation A Bayer designation is a stellar designation in which a specific star is identified by a Greek or Latin letter followed by the genitive form of its parent constellation's Latin name. The original list of Bayer designations contained 1,564 stars. ...

. It has a

Flamsteed designation A Flamsteed designation is a combination of a number and constellation name that uniquely identifies most naked eye stars in the modern constellations visible from southern England. They are named for John Flamsteed who first used them while co ...

of 5 Cephei. It bore the traditional name ''Alderamin'', a contraction of the

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

phrase ''الذراع اليمين'' ''al-dhirā‘ al-yamīn'', meaning "the right arm". In 2016, the

International Astronomical Union The International Astronomical Union (IAU; french: link=yes, Union astronomique internationale, UAI) is a nongovernmental organisation with the objective of advancing astronomy in all aspects, including promoting astronomical research, outreac ...

organized a

Working Group on Star Names The International Astronomical Union (IAU) established a Working Group on Star Names (WGSN) in May 2016 to catalog and standardize proper names for stars for the international astronomical community. It operates under Division C – Education ...

(WGSN) to catalog and standardize proper names for stars. The WGSN's first bulletin of July 2016 included a table of the first two batches of names approved by the WGSN; which included ''Alderamin'' for this star.

Visibility

With a declination in excess of 62 degrees north, Alpha Cephei never rises south of −27° latitude, which means for much of South America, Australia, South Africa, and all of New Zealand, the star stays below the horizon. The star is

circumpolar Circumpolar may refer to: * Antarctic region ** Antarctic Circle ** the Antarctic Circumpolar Current ** Subantarctic ** List of Antarctic and subantarctic islands ** Antarctic Convergence ** Antarctic Circumpolar Wave ** Antarctic Ocean * Arctic ...

throughout all of

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

, northern Asia, Canada, and American cities as far south as

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

. Since Alpha Cephei has an apparent magnitude of about 2.5, the star is easily observable to the naked eye, even in light-polluted cities.

Pole star

Alpha Cephei is located near the precessional path traced across the

celestial sphere In astronomy and navigation, the celestial sphere is an abstract sphere that has an arbitrarily large radius and is concentric to Earth. All objects in the sky can be conceived as being projected upon the inner surface of the celestial sphere, ...

by the Earth's

North pole The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True North Pole to distinguish from the Mag ...

. That means that it periodically comes within 3° of being a

pole star A pole star or polar star is a star, preferably bright, nearly aligned with the axis of a rotating astronomical body. Currently, Earth's pole stars are Polaris (Alpha Ursae Minoris), a bright magnitude-2 star aligned approximately with its ...

, a title currently held by

Polaris Polaris is a star in the northern circumpolar constellation of Ursa Minor. It is designated α Ursae Minoris ( Latinized to ''Alpha Ursae Minoris'') and is commonly called the North Star or Pole Star. With an apparent magnitude that ...

. Alpha Cephei will next be the North Star in about the year 7500 AD. The north pole of

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury (planet), Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Mars (mythology), Roman god of war. Mars is a terr ...

points to the midpoint of the line connecting the star and

Deneb Deneb () is a first-magnitude star in the constellation of Cygnus, the swan. Deneb is one of the vertices of the asterism known as the Summer Triangle and the "head" of the Northern Cross. It is the brightest star in Cygnus and the ...

Properties

Alderamin is a white class A star, evolving off the

main sequence In astronomy, the main sequence is a continuous and distinctive band of stars that appears on plots of stellar color versus brightness. These color-magnitude plots are known as Hertzsprung–Russell diagrams after their co-developers, Ejnar Her ...

into a

subgiant A subgiant is a star that is brighter than a normal main-sequence star of the same spectral class, but not as bright as giant stars. The term subgiant is applied both to a particular spectral luminosity class and to a stage in the evolution of ...

, probably on its way to becoming a

red giant A red giant is a luminous giant star of low or intermediate mass (roughly 0.3–8 solar masses ()) in a late phase of stellar evolution. The outer atmosphere is inflated and tenuous, making the radius large and the surface temperature around or ...

as its hydrogen supply runs low. In 2007, the star's apparent magnitude was recalibrated at 2.5141 along with an updated parallax of 66.50 ± 0.11 mas yielding a distance of 15 parsecs or approximately 49 light years from Earth. Given a surface temperature of 7,740 Kelvin, stellar models yield a total luminosity for the star of about 17 times the

luminosity of the Sun The solar luminosity (), is a unit of radiant flux (power emitted in the form of photons) conventionally used by astronomers to measure the luminosity of stars, galaxies and other celestial objects in terms of the output of the Sun. One nominal s ...

. Alderamin has a radius of 2.3 times the Sun's radius and boasting a mass that is 1.74 that of the

Sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...

. Like other stars in its class, it is slightly variable with a range in brightness of 0.06 magnitude, and is listed as a

Delta Scuti variable A Delta Scuti variable (sometimes termed dwarf cepheid when the V-band amplitude is larger than 0.3 mag.) is a subclass of young pulsating star. These variables as well as classical cepheids are important standard candles and have been used to e ...

. Alderamin has a very high rotation speed of at least 246 km/s, completing one complete revolution in less than 12 hours, with such a rapid turnover appearing to inhibit the differentiation of chemical elements usually seen in such stars. By comparison, the Sun takes almost a month to turn on its axis. Alpha Cephei is also known to emit an amount of X radiation similar to the Sun, which along with other indicators suggests the existence of considerable magnetic activity—something unexpected (though not at all unusual) for a fast rotator.

Etymology and cultural significance

This star, along with

Beta Cephei Beta Cephei (β Cephei, abbreviated Beta Cep, β Cep) is a triple star system of the third magnitude in the constellation of Cepheus. Based on parallax measurements obtained during the Hipparcos mission, it is approximately 690 light-y ...

(Alfirk) and

Eta Cephei Eta Cephei (η Cep, η Cephei) is a star in the northern circumpolar constellation of Cepheus. With an apparent visual magnitude of 3.4, this is a third magnitude star that, according to the Bortle Dark-Sky Scale, is readily visible to ...

(Alkidr) were ''al-Kawākib al-Firq'' (''الكواكب الفرق''), meaning "the Stars of the Flock" by

Ulug Beg Mīrzā Muhammad Tāraghay bin Shāhrukh ( chg, میرزا محمد طارق بن شاہ رخ, fa, میرزا محمد تراغای بن شاہ رخ), better known as Ulugh Beg () (22 March 1394 – 27 October 1449), was a Timurid sultan, as ...

. In

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

, (), meaning '' Celestial Hook'', refers to an asterism consisting of α Cephei, 4 Cephei, HD 194298,

Theta Cephei Theta Cephei, Latinized from θ Cephei, is a stellar class A7, fourth-magnitude star in the constellation Cepheus. This displays at a metallic-line Am star. It is a white-hued, single-lined spectroscopic binary system, located about ...

Xi Cephei Xi Cephei (ξ Cephei, abbreviated Xi Cep, ξ Cep) is a multiple star system in the constellation of Cepheus. It is approximately 86 light-years from Earth. It consists of two binary stars, designated Xi Cephei A and B, together wit ...

, 26 Cephei,

Iota Cephei Iota Cephei (ι Cephei, ι Cep) is a star in the northern constellation Cepheus (constellation), Cepheus. Based upon an annual parallax shift of as seen from the Earth, it is located about from the Sun. The star is visible to the naked ey ...

and

Omicron Cephei Omicron Cephei, Latinized from ο Cephei, is a binary star in the constellation of Cepheus. It consists of a less massive F-type main sequence star in orbit with a more massive G-type giant star. The overall apparent vi ...

. Consequently, the

Chinese name Chinese names or Chinese personal names are names used by individuals from Greater China and other parts of the Chinese-speaking world throughout East and Southeast Asia (ESEA). In addition, many names used in Japan, Korea and Vietnam are often a ...

for Alpha Cephei itself is (, en, the Fifth Star of the Celestial Hook.).

Namesakes

USS Alderamin (AK-116) was a

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

Crater class cargo ship The ''Crater''-class cargo ship were converted EC2-S-C1 type, Liberty ship, Liberty cargo ships, constructed by the United States Maritime Commission (USMC) for use by the United States Navy, US Navy during World War II. The designation 'EC2-S-C1' ...

named after the star.

References

External links

* *NASA's
History of Precession
*Crystallinks

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alpha Cephei Cephei, Alpha Cepheus (constellation) A-type subgiants Northern pole stars

Alderamin Alpha Cephei (α Cephei, abbreviated Alpha Cep, α Cep), officially named Alderamin , is a second magnitude star in the constellation of Cepheus near the northern pole. The star is relatively close to Earth at 49 light years (''ly''). ...

Castor Moving Group Cephei, 05 203280 8162 BD+61 2111 105199 Suspected variables Delta Scuti variables 0826