Constellation, Swan
Cygnus
The swan, flying down the Milky Way with its long neck stretched out. Its brightest stars form the Northern Cross, and Deneb marks the tail.
From New York on October 13, 2026, the centre of Cygnus rises at 10:30 AM, is highest at 7:56 PM (89° above the horizon in the N) and sets at 5:19 AM.
In the 3D sky
The sky over New York turned towards Cygnus. Drag to look around.
Loading 3D view...
Drag to look around, pinch or scroll to zoom.
Evening visibility over the year
Height of the constellation’s centre above the horizon at 10 pm local time on the 15th of each month, from New York. Above about 30° it is well placed.
Name and history
Aratus called this figure simply the bird. Eratosthenes made it a swan, and Greek writers said it was Zeus in disguise, though they disagreed about his quarry. In the oldest version Zeus chased the nymph Nemesis through many shapes and caught her at last as a swan. A simpler story says that Zeus took the form of a swan to win Leda, queen of Sparta. Her children included the twins Castor and Pollux, and Helen of Troy.
Deneb comes from an Arabic word for the tail, and Arab astronomers also called the figure the hen. The name Albireo, at the swan’s beak, looks Arabic but is meaningless. It grew from a chain of medieval mistranslations of the Greek word for bird. In August 1600 Willem Blaeu noticed a new third-magnitude star in the swan’s neck. Now called P Cygni, it was only the second variable star to be found, after Mira.
Sources: Ian Ridpath, Star Tales: Cygnus
Brightest stars
| Star | Designation | Magnitude | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Deneb | α Cyg | 1.25 | 1,412 light-years |
| Sadr | γ Cyg | 2.23 | 1,832 light-years |
| Aljanah | ε Cyg | 2.48 | 73 light-years |
| Fawaris | δ Cyg | 2.86 | 165 light-years |
| Albireo | β1 Cyg | 3.05 | 434 light-years |
| ζ Cyg | ζ Cyg | 3.21 | 143 light-years |
| ξ Cyg | ξ Cyg | 3.72 | 843 light-years |
| τ Cyg | τ Cyg | 3.74 | 66 light-years |
| ι2 Cyg | ι2 Cyg | 3.76 | 121 light-years |
| κ Cyg | κ Cyg | 3.80 | 124 light-years |
Facts
| Area | about 804 square degrees (16 of 88) |
|---|---|
| IAU abbreviation | Cyg |
| Sky | Northern sky |
| Origin | Listed in Ptolemy’s Almagest, about AD 150, from older Greek tradition |
| Stars brighter than magnitude 5 | 46 |
| Centre (J2000) | 20.5 h, 41° |
Deep-sky objects
Galaxies, clusters and nebulae brighter than magnitude 9, from the OpenNGC catalogue. Most need binoculars or a telescope and a dark sky.
| Object | Type | Magnitude |
|---|---|---|
| NGC7000 · North America Nebula | HII region | 4.0 |
| M39 | Open cluster | 4.6 |
| NGC6871 | Open cluster | 5.2 |
| M29 | Open cluster | 6.6 |
| NGC6811 | Open cluster | 6.8 |
| NGC6960 · Veil Nebula | Supernova remnant | 7.0 |
| NGC6992 · Eastern Veil | Supernova remnant | 7.0 |
| NGC6995 · Eastern Veil | Supernova remnant | 7.0 |
| NGC7063 | Open cluster | 7.0 |
| IC5146 · Cocoon Nebula | Cluster with nebula | 7.2 |
Boundaries: International Astronomical Union, via Astronomy Engine. Areas are computed from the boundaries by sampling (within about one percent). Names and lines: Stellarium. Stars: HYG Database. Deep-sky objects: OpenNGC. Calculated with Astronomy Engine, an open-source library verified against the US Naval Observatory and NASA JPL. Data sources
How to use this page
Choose your place and a night at the top. The answer and the 3D view show where the constellation is, when it is highest and whether it rises at all from where you are. The chart shows its stars and lines, and the tables list its brightest stars and the deep-sky objects inside it.
Frequently asked questions
When is a constellation best seen?
When it is highest in a dark sky, which the page gives for the night you pick. Each constellation is best placed in a particular season, because the stars rise about four minutes earlier every night.
Why can I not see a constellation from my place?
Constellations far south of the celestial equator never rise from northern places, and those far north never rise from southern ones. The page says when this is the case.
What are the constellation boundaries?
The International Astronomical Union divides the sky into 88 areas with official boundaries. The stick figures are only a drawing aid, the boundaries say which constellation a point in the sky belongs to.
Related guides
- How to learn the constellationsStart with one bright pattern you cannot miss, use it as a signpost to its neighbours, and come back a month later: the sky will have turned, and you will know a little more of it.
- Altitude and azimuth: finding things in the skyTwo angles tell you exactly where to look: which direction, and how high.
- Light pollution and dark skies: the Bortle scaleFrom a city centre you can count a few dozen stars. From a truly dark site you can count a few thousand, with the Milky Way bright enough to cast a shadow. The Bortle scale puts a number on the difference.
- Binoculars for stargazing: what to buy and what to look atA pair of 7x50 or 10x50 binoculars shows the craters of the Moon, the moons of Jupiter, dozens of star clusters and the Andromeda Galaxy, for a fraction of the cost of a telescope.