Friday, November 8, 2024

Herschel's Garnet Star (evening)

The Garnet Star, otherwise known as Erakis or Mu (?) Cephei, is a 4th- magnitude naked-eye star located just 1.5 degrees outside of the southern edge of box-shaped Cepheus. This remarkable star is well worth a look in backyard telescopes where its extremely red color stands in contrast to the surrounding stars. A red hypergiant, M2-class star, Mu Cephei emits about 100,000 times more light than our sun in visible wavelengths, allowing us to see it well despite its 2,800 light-year distance. If exchanged with our sun, all the planets inside the orbit of Saturn would find themselves inside the star!

(Data courtesy of Starry Night)
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