The Id of the star in the Yale Bright Star Catalogue is HR9018. HIP117447 is the reference name for the star in the Hipparcos Star Catalogue. The Id of the star in the Henry Draper catalogue is HD223385.
6 Cassiopeiae has alternative name(s) :- , V566 Cas.
Flamsteed designations are named after the creator, Sir John Flamsteed. Sir John named the stars in the constellation with a number and its latin name, this star's Flamsteed designation is 6 Cassiopeiae. The Flamsteed name can be shortened to 6 Cas.
BD number is the number that the star was filed under in the Durchmusterung or Bonner Durchmusterung, a star catalogue that was put together by the Bonn Observatory between 1859 to 1903. The star's BD Number is BD+61 2533.
More details on objects' alternative names can be found at Star Names .
The location of the supergiant star in the night sky is determined by the Right Ascension (R.A.) and Declination (Dec.), these are equivalent to the Longitude and Latitude on the Earth. The Right Ascension is how far expressed in time (hh:mm:ss) the star is along the celestial equator. If the R.A. is positive then its eastwards. The Declination is how far north or south the object is compared to the celestial equator and is expressed in degrees. For 6 Cassiopeiae, the location is 23h 48m 50.17 and +62° 12` 52.3 .
All stars like planets orbit round a central spot, in the case of planets, its the central star such as the Sun. In the case of a star, its the galactic centre. The constellations that we see today will be different than they were 50,000 years ago or 50,000 years from now. Proper Motion details the movements of these stars and are measured in milliarcseconds. The star is moving -1.57 ± 0.28 milliarcseconds/year towards the north and -3.57 ± 0.37 milliarcseconds/year east if we saw them in the horizon.
The Radial Velocity, that is the speed at which the star is moving away/towards the Sun is -42.30 km/s with an error of about 0.60 km/s . When the value is negative then the star and the Sun are getting closer to one another, likewise, a positive number means that two stars are moving away. Its nothing to fear as the stars are so far apart, they won't collide in our life-time, if ever.
Based on the star's spectral type of A3Ia comp , 6 Cassiopeiae's colour and type is blue - white supergiant star. The star has a B-V Colour Index of 0.67 which means the star's temperature is about 5,716 Kelvin. The temperature was calculated using information from Morgans @ Uni.edu.
6 Cassiopeiae estimated radius has been calculated as being 389.76 times bigger than the Sun. The Sun's radius is 695,800km, therefore the star's radius is an estimated 271,195,525.21.km. If you need the diameter of the star, you just need to multiple the radius by 2. However with the 2007 release of updated Hipparcos files, the radius is now calculated at being round 147.50. The figure is derived at by using the formula from SDSS rather than peer reviewed papers. It has been known to produce widely incorrect figures.
6 Cassiopeiae Iron Abundance is 0.46 with an error value of 9.99 Fe/H with the Sun has a value of 1 to put it into context. The value comes from the Hipparcos Extended Catalog.
6 Cassiopeiae has an apparent magnitude of 5.43 which is how bright we see the star from Earth. Apparent Magnitude is also known as Visual Magnitude. If you used the 1997 Parallax value, you would get an absolute magnitude of -8.06 If you used the 2007 Parallax value, you would get an absolute magnitude of -5.95. Magnitude, whether it be apparent/visual or absolute magnitude is measured by a number, the smaller the number, the brighter the Star is. Our own Sun is the brightest star and therefore has the lowest of all magnitudes, -26.74. A faint star will have a high number.
Using the original Hipparcos data that was released in 1997, the parallax to the star was given as 0.20 which gave the calculated distance to 6 Cassiopeiae as 16308.17 light years away from Earth or 5000 parsecs. If you want that in miles, it is about 95,869,621,952,191,753.09, based on 1 Ly = 5,878,625,373,183.61 miles.
In 2007, Hipparcos data was revised with a new parallax of 0.53 which put 6 Cassiopeiae at a distance of 6154.03 light years or 1886.79 parsecs. It should not be taken as though the star is moving closer or further away from us. It is purely that the distance was recalculated.
Using the 2007 distance, the star is roughly 389,175,661.97 Astronomical Units from the Earth/Sun give or take a few. An Astronomical Unit is the distance between Earth and the Sun. The number of A.U. is the number of times that the star is from the Earth compared to the Sun.
The time it will take to travel to this star is dependent on how fast you are going. U.G. has done some calculations as to how long it will take going at differing speeds. A note about the calculations, when I'm talking about years, I'm talking non-leap years only (365 days).
The New Horizons space probe is the fastest probe that we've sent into space at the time of writing. Its primary mission was to visit Pluto which at the time of launch (2006), Pluto was still a planet.
|Description||Speed (m.p.h.)||Time (years)|
|Speed of Sound (Mach 1)||767.269||5,378,810,890.79|
|Concorde (Mach 2)||1,534.54||2,689,401,940.23|
|New Horizons Probe||33,000||125,060,450.10|
|Speed of Light||670,616,629.00||6,154.03|
The star is a pulsating Alpha Cygnus variable type which means that its size changes over time. The Variable Type is usually named after the first star of that type to be spotted. 6 Cassiopeiae brightness ranges from a magnitude of 5.640 to a magnitude of 5.550 over its variable period. The smaller the magnitude, the brighter the star. Its variable/pulsating period lasts for 0.1 days (variability).
The source of the information if it has a Hip I.D. is from Simbad, the Hipparcos data library based at the University at Strasbourg, France. Hipparcos was a E.S.A. satellite operation launched in 1989 for four years. The items in red are values that I've calculated so they could well be wrong. Information regarding Metallicity and/or Mass is from the E.U. Exoplanets. The information was obtained as of 12th Feb 2017.
|Primary / Proper / Traditional Name||6 Cassiopeiae|
|Alternative Names||HD 223385, HIP 117447, HR 9018, 6 Cas, BD+61 2533, V566 Cas|
|Spectral Type||A3Ia comp|
|Constellation's Main Star||No|
|Multiple Star System||Yes|
|Star Type||very luminous Supergiant Star|
|Absolute Magnitude||-8.06 / -5.95|
|Visual / Apparent Magnitude||5.43|
|Naked Eye Visible||Yes - Magnitudes|
|Right Ascension (R.A.)||23h 48m 50.17|
|Declination (Dec.)||+62° 12` 52.3|
|Galactic Latitude||0.22 degrees|
|Galactic Longitude||115.71 degrees|
|1997 Distance from Earth||0.20 Parallax (milliarcseconds)|
|16308.17 Light Years|
|2007 Distance from Earth||0.53 Parallax (milliarcseconds)|
|6154.03 Light Years|
|389,175,661.97 Astronomical Units|
|Proper Motion Dec.||-1.57 ± 0.28 milliarcseconds/year|
|Proper Motion RA.||-3.57 ± 0.37 milliarcseconds/year|
|Radial Velocity||-42.30 ± 0.60 km/s|
|Iron Abundance||0.46 ± 9.99 Fe/H|
|Variable Star Class||Pulsating|
|Variable Star Type||Alpha Cygnus|
|Mean Variability Period in Days||0.077|
|Variable Magnitude Range (Brighter - Dimmer)||5.550 - 5.640|
|Radius (x the Sun)||147.50|
|Effective Temperature||5,716 Kelvin|
The star has been identified as being a multi-star system, one in which there is at least one star in close orbit to another star or two or more stars orbiting a central point. The stars may be of equal mass, unequal mass where one star is stronger than the other or be in groups orbiting a central point which doesn't necessarily have to be a star. More information can be found on my dedicated multiple star systems page. The source of the info is Simbad. The file is dated 2000 so any differences between this and any other source will be down to the actual source from where the information came from.
|Proper Motion mas/yr|
|H.D. Id||B.D. Id||Star Code||Magnitude||R.A.||Dec.||Spectrum||Colour||Year|
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