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61 Cygni is also called Gl 820, very rarely called Bessel's Star, and informally Proxima Cygni. Nearby star system containing two orange dwarves. This was the star with the highest proper motion known in the 1830s and dubbed as "The Flying Star" by Giuseppe Piazzi in 1792. It is the star with the highest proper motion of any stars visible with the naked eye. In 1911, it was found by Boss to be a part of a moving group, dubbed the 61 Cygni Moving Group. Friedrich Struve first made measurements of it as a binary system in 1830. It was also the first system to have its distance measured by parallax, which was done by Bessel in 1838. The stars are barely visible with the naked eye. The stars are separated on average by 86 AU. The stars atmospheres likely do not touch. The stars are old, 6 to 10 Billion Years old. There were several claims of a planetary system in the 20th Century, but none have panned out. This includes Strand's claim in 1942 (under the direction of Van de Kamp), and Soviet claims in 1977. Heintz proved in 1978 that these claims were false. Due to its proximity to Earth, the star was a tier 1 priority for the Space Interferometry Mission, which hoped to discover planets.
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- Aliases: 61 Cygni System, Gliese 820 System, The Flying Star System
- Nearest White Main Sequence Star: Altair System, Bessel's Star System