Star chart of surrounding area.
61 Cygni (also Bessel's star) was a star system consisting of binary companion stars, 61 Cygni A and 61 Cygni B, located about 11.4 light years from Sol.
On several occasions in 2364, viewscreen readouts aboard the USS Enterprise-D showed the location of the A and B 61 Cygni stars, in the form of a star chart from the Enterprise library computer. (TNG: "The Naked Now", "The Last Outpost", "Conspiracy")
Background
The Enterprise computer's star chart was a drawing by Rick Sternbach that had originally been published, years earlier, on page 77 of the reference titled Spaceflight Chronology. This chart showed Earth commercial and exploration routes in the 2050s and 2060s, but no text attesting to this fact was included in the portion used onscreen, just the labeled names of the stars.
61 Cygni, or Bessel's star, is a real system in the constellation of Cygnus. Modern scientists have determined 61 Cygni's components are spectral class K5V and K7V.
Apocrypha
The Star Fleet Technical Manual lists this star as one of the founding members of the Federation. Later, it would be associated with the homeworld of the Tellarite race in non-canon publications.
External links
- 61 Cygni at Wikipedia
- 61 Cygni at the Internet Stellar Database