Cepheus is an ancient constellation and represents a mythological King of Ethiopia. Queen Cassiopeia was his wife, and Andromeda was his daughter. The constellation forms what should be a striking asterism; best described as a man wearing a dunce’s cap and smoking a cigarette. However, most of its stars are third magnitude, so barely visible in Havering. 

The most famous object in Cepheus is William Herschel’s Garnet Star [1] (nineteenth century astronomers used the term garnet rather than red) or Mu Cephei, which is magnitude 4.1 (image below left). As a red supergiant it has a B-V of 2.35, which means it is very red, but it is not one of reddest stars in the sky. Another famous star in Cepheus is the variable star, Delta Cephei [2] (below right), which is the prototype cepheid variable, and was discovered by John Goodricke in 1784.

Delta Cephei is also an easy yellow and blue double star. Kurhah [3], in the middle of Cepheus, is similar to Delta Cephei but tighter; the colours are white and purple. Just below the Garnet Star is the Elephant Trunk Nebula (below right), a cloud of interstellar dust and gas inside the emission nebula IC 1396. It is not really a visual target, but a good one for imagers.