It bore the traditional name Anser, derived from when the constellation had the name Vulpecula cum Ansere 'the little fox with the goose'.[13] In 2016, the IAU organized a Working Group on Star Names (WGSN)[14] to catalog and standardize proper names for stars. The WGSN approved the name Anser for this star on 30 June 2017 and it is now so included in the List of IAU-approved Star Names.[10]
Description
Amateur image of the dark nebula LDN 778 (center) and Alpha Vulpeculae, (red giant, top center).
α Vulpeculae has been suspected to be variable in brightness by about a tenth of a magnitude, but this has never been confirmed.[15] Analysis of the isotopic ratios in its photosphere show that it has a mass less than 1.5 M☉ and has not yet evolved to the asymptotic giant branch and experienced a third dredge up.[3]
^ abcMassarotti, Alessandro; et al. (January 2008), "Rotational and radial velocities for a sample of 761 HIPPARCOS giants and the role of binarity", The Astronomical Journal, 135 (1): 209–231, Bibcode:2008AJ....135..209M, doi:10.1088/0004-6256/135/1/209.
^ abBaines, Ellyn K.; Armstrong, J. Thomas; Schmitt, Henrique R.; Zavala, R. T.; Benson, James A.; Hutter, Donald J.; Tycner, Christopher; Belle, Gerard T. van (2017), "Fundamental Parameters of 87 Stars from the Navy Precision Optical Interferometer", The Astronomical Journal, 155 (1): 30, arXiv:1712.08109, Bibcode:2018AJ....155...30B, doi:10.3847/1538-3881/aa9d8b, S2CID119427037.
^Huang, Y.; Liu, X.-W.; Yuan, H.-B.; Xiang, M.-S.; Chen, B.-Q.; Zhang, H.-W. (2015), "Empirical metallicity-dependent calibrations of effective temperature against colours for dwarfs and giants based on interferometric data", Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 454 (3): 2863–2889, arXiv:1508.06080, Bibcode:2015MNRAS.454.2863H, doi:10.1093/mnras/stv1991.
^Samus, N. N.; Durlevich, O. V.; et al. (2009), "VizieR Online Data Catalog: General Catalogue of Variable Stars (Samus+ 2007-2013)", VizieR On-line Data Catalog: B/GCVS. Originally Published in: 2009yCat....102025S, 1: B/gcvs, Bibcode:2009yCat....102025S.