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Cygnus is a northern constellation on the plane of the Milky Way, deriving its name from the Latinized Greek word for swan. [1] Cygnus is one of the most recognizable constellations of the northern summer and autumn, and it features a prominent asterism known as the Northern Cross (in contrast to the Southern Cross ).
The Northern Cross is an astronomical asterism in the northern hemisphere of the celestial sphere, corresponding closely with the constellation Cygnus the swan. It is much larger than the Southern Cross and consists of the brightest stars in Cygnus: Deneb, Sadr, Gienah, Delta Cygni and Albireo. The 'head' of the cross, Deneb, is also part of ...
Deneb (/ ˈ d ɛ n ɛ b /) is a first-magnitude blue supergiant star in the constellation of Cygnus. 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 19th brightest star in the night sky, with an average apparent magnitude of +1.25.
Gamma Cygni (γ Cygni, abbreviated Gamma Cyg, γ Cyg), officially named Sadr / ˈ s æ d ər /, [11] [12] is a star in the northern constellation of Cygnus, forming the intersection of an asterism of five stars called the Northern Cross.
The Northern Cross in Cygnus. [4] The upright runs from Deneb (α Cyg) in the Swan's tail to Albireo (β Cyg) in the beak. The transverse runs from ε Cygni in one wing to δ Cygni in the other. The Southern Cross is an asterism by name, but the whole area is now recognised as the constellation Crux.
Since Cygnus is the swan, and Beta Cygni is located at the head of the swan, it is sometimes called the "beak star". [32] With Deneb , Gamma Cygni (Sadr), Delta Cygni , and Epsilon Cygni (Gienah), it forms the asterism called the Northern Cross .
Delta Cygni (δ Cygni, abbreviated Delta Cyg, δ Cyg) is a binary star of a combined third-magnitude in the constellation of Cygnus. It is also part of the Northern Cross asterism whose brightest star is Deneb .
The ancient Mesopotamians and later the Greeks established most of the northern constellations in international use today, listed by the Roman-Egyptian astronomer Ptolemy. The constellations along the ecliptic are called the zodiac. When explorers mapped the stars of the southern skies, European astronomers proposed new constellations for that ...