| We have found the absolute dimensions of the components of the eclipsing binary star VZ Cep, using 5788 photometric observations in the V filter, and 31 radial velocities obtained from spectroscopic observations. Our absolute dimensions are accurate to within 1% for the masses and 2% for the radii. We obtain 1.317 +/- .0008 solar masses and 1.498 +/- .013 solar radii for the primary, and 1.072 +/- .010 solar masses and 1.070 +/- .019 solar radii for the secondary. Effective temperatures and interstellar reddening are determined from uvbybeta and UBV photometry. We find a temperature of 6730 +/- 180 K for the primary and 5800 +/- 180 K for the secondary, making them F3 and G2 type stars, respectively, with a color excess E(b-y) of 0.032 mag. The components of VZ Cep are main sequence stars with an age, according to models, of about 2.5 billion years. |
