Omicron Cephei
Encyclopedia
Omicron Cephei 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, comes, or secondary...

 in the constellation
Constellation
In modern astronomy, a constellation is an internationally defined area of the celestial sphere. These areas are grouped around asterisms, patterns formed by prominent stars within apparent proximity to one another on Earth's night sky....

 of Cepheus
Cepheus (constellation)
Cepheus is a constellation in the northern sky. It is named after Cepheus, King of Aethiopia in Greek mythology. It was one of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd century astronomer Ptolemy, and remains one of the 88 modern constellations.-Stars:...

. It consists of a less massive K-type main sequence star in orbit
Orbit
In physics, an orbit is the gravitationally curved path of an object around a point in space, for example the orbit of a planet around the center of a star system, such as the Solar System...

 with a more massive G-type giant star
Giant star
A giant star is a star with substantially larger radius and luminosity than a main sequence star of the same surface temperature. Typically, giant stars have radii between 10 and 100 solar radii and luminosities between 10 and 1,000 times that of the Sun. Stars still more luminous than giants are...

. The overall apparent visual magnitude of the system is 4.75.

The pair was first determined to be binary by F. G. W. Struve in 1832. Since then, the secondary has been seen to revolve approximately 45 degrees around the primary. A number of orbits have been computed, the most recent giving a period of approximately 1500 years.

Visual companion

There is a visual companion
Double star
In observational astronomy, a double star is a pair of stars that appear close to each other in the sky as seen from Earth when viewed through an optical telescope. This can happen either because the pair forms a binary star, i.e...

, CCDM J23186+6807C, to the binary star. It has an approximate apparent visual magnitude of 12.8 and is located approximately 45 arcseconds away from it.
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