(16–20″). So, under ideal viewing conditions, the binary system can be resolved by a telescope with a 7 mm aperture. This is well within the capability for aperture of typical binoculars, though to resolve the binary these need a steady mount and some 10x magnification. With a separation of 28 arc-seconds between the component stars, 10× magnification would give an apparent separation of 280 arc-seconds, above the generally regarded eye resolution limit of 4 arc-minutes or 240 arc-seconds. Properties Although it appears to be a single star to the naked eye, 61 Cygni is a widely-separated binary star system, composed of two K class (orange) main sequence stars, the brighter 61 Cygni A and fainter 61 Cygni B, which have apparent magnitudes of 5.2 and 6.1, respectively. Both appear to be old-disk stars, with an estimated age that is older than the Sun. At a distance of just over 11 light-years, it is the 15th-nearest-known star system to the Earth (not including the Sun). 61 Cygni A is the fourth-nearest star that is visible to the naked eye for mid-latitude northern observers, after Sirius, Epsilon Eridani, and Procyon A. This system will make its closest approach at about 20,000 CE, when the separation from the Sun will be about 9 light-years. Smaller and dimmer than the Sun, 61 Cygni A has about 70 percent of a solar mass, 72 percent of its diameter and about 8.5 percent of its luminosity and 61 Cygni B has about 63 percent of a solar mass, 67 percent of its diameter, and 3.9 percent of its luminosity. 61 Cygni A's long-term stability led to it being selected as an "anchor star" in the Morgan–Keenan (MK) classification system in 1943, serving as the K5 V "anchor point" since that time. Starting in 1953, 61 Cygni B has been considered a K7 V standard star (Johnson & Morgan 1953, Keenan & McNeil 1989). 61 Cygni A is a typical BY Draconis variable star designated as V1803 Cyg while 61 Cygni B is a flare type variable star named HD 201092 with their magnitudes varying 5.21 V and 6.03, respectively. The two stars orbit their common barycenter in a period of 659 years, with a mean separation of about 84 AU—84 times the separation between the Earth and the Sun. The relatively large orbital eccentricity of 0.48 means that the two stars are separated by about 44