φ Cygni is a double-linedspectroscopic binary system, which means that theabsorption lines of both components are visible in thespectrum. The two sets of spectral lines are almost identical and both stars are assigned a spectral type of K0III, meaning they have evolved intogiants. They are considered to bered clump giants, stars that have begun core helium fusion and lie on thehorizontal branch but because of theirmetallicity and the size of their hydrogen envelope they are found very close to thered giant branch.[11][12] The two stars are assumed to have the same age, which would be around 650 million years.[13][7] The pair have anorbital period of 434.208 days, or 1.2 Earth years, asemimajor axis of 26.9 mas, and a higheccentricity of 0.56.[8]
^abcdFernie, J. D. (June 1969), "UBV observations of miscellaneous stars",Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada,63:133–135,Bibcode:1969JRASC..63..133F.
^abcdPiccotti, Luca; Docobo, José Ángel; Carini, Roberta; Tamazian, Vakhtang S.; Brocato, Enzo; Andrade, Manuel; Campo, Pedro P. (2020-02-01), "A study of the physical properties of SB2s with both the visual and spectroscopic orbits",Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society,492 (2):2709–2721,Bibcode:2020MNRAS.492.2709P,doi:10.1093/mnras/stz3616,ISSN0035-8711Phi Cygni's database entry atVizieR.
^abArmstrong, J. T; Hummel, C. A; Quirrenbach, A; Buscher, D. F; Mozurkewich, D; Vivekanand, M; Simon, R. S; Denison, C. S; Johnston, K. J; Pan, X.-P; Shao, M; Colavita, M. M (1992). "The orbit of Phi Cygni measured with long-baseline optical interferometry - Component masses and absolute magnitudes".Astronomical Journal.104: 2217.Bibcode:1992AJ....104.2217A.doi:10.1086/116396.
^Fekel, F. C (2004). "The Spectroscopic Orbit of φ Cygni, a System with Two Late-Type Giants".The Environment and Evolution of Double and Multiple Stars.21: 63.Bibcode:2004RMxAC..21...63F.
^Armstrong, J. T; Hummel, C. A; Quirrenbach, A; Buscher, D. F; Mozurkewich, D; Vivekanand, M; Simon, R. S; Denison, C. S; Johnston, K. J; Pan, X.-P; Shao, M; Colavita, M. M (1992). "The orbit of Phi Cygni measured with long-baseline optical interferometry - Component masses and absolute magnitudes".Astronomical Journal.104: 2217.arXiv:1304.2530.Bibcode:1992AJ....104.2217A.doi:10.1086/116396.