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Cepheus
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Cepheus

constellation
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Written by
Erik Gregersen
Erik Gregersen is a senior editor at Encyclopaedia Britannica, specializing in the physical sciences and technology. Before joining Britannica in 2007, he worked at the University of Chicago Press on the...
Erik Gregersen
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Cepheus, constellation in the northern sky, at about 23 hours right ascension and 70° north in declination. It is shaped like a box with a triangle on top. The brightest star, Alderamin (from the Arabic for “right arm”), has a magnitude of 2.5. The star Delta Cephei gave its name to the variable stars called Cepheid variables. Cepheid variables have a close relationship between their period of variability and their luminosity and thus have been very useful in the measurement of astronomical distances. Cepheus is named after the king of Ethiopia who, according to Greek mythology, was forced to sacrifice his daughter Andromeda to the sea monster Cetus.

Erik Gregersen