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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 ...
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).
Crux (/ k r ʌ k s /) is a constellation of the southern sky that is centred on four bright stars in a cross-shaped asterism commonly known as the Southern Cross. It lies on the southern end of the Milky Way 's visible band.
These stars delineate the Bear's hindquarters and exaggerated tail, or alternatively, the "handle" forming the upper outline of the bear's head and neck. With its longer tail, Ursa Minor hardly appears bearlike at all, and is widely known by its pseudonym, the Little Dipper. The Northern Cross in Cygnus. [4]
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. Deneb rivals Rigel, a closer blue supergiant, as the most luminous first-magnitude star.
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.
Albireo is the star in the head of the constellation of Cygnus (bottom). β Cygni (Latinised to Beta Cygni) is the system's Bayer designation. The brighter of the two components is designated β¹ Cygni or Beta Cygni A and the fainter β² Cygni or Beta Cygni B. The origin of the star system's traditional name Albireo is unclear.
Like many hot stars, it spins rapidly, at least 135 kilometers per second at the equator, about 60 times that of the Sun. [10] The close companion Delta Cygni B is a yellow-white F-type main-sequence star of the sixth magnitude (6.33) with a luminosity about 6 times that of the Sun, and a mass about 1.5 times the Sun's.