Alpha Cephei is known as Alderamin, "The Right Shoulder" (of the king). The brightest star in Cepheus with a visual magnitude of 2.5, it has a distance of 49 light years.

Alderamin will become the Pole Star long in the future -- around the midpoint of the seventh millennium.

To find Alderamin, move eight degrees south of beta Cep.

Now, if you place Alderamin at the right side of your glasses, the finest binary, xi Cephei, becomes visible on the opposite edge: binoculars. The reddish (or yellow) companion orbits the blue primary every 3800 years. The present PA is 275º with a separation of 8.2".