We report the discovery of a new Wolf-Rayet star in the direction of Cygnus .
The star is strongly reddened but quite bright in the infrared , with J = 9.22 , H = 8.08 and K _ { S } = 7.09 ( 2MASS ) .
On the basis of its H + K spectrum , we have classified WR 142a a WC8 star .
We have estimated its properties using as a reference those of other WC8 stars in the solar neighbourhood as well as those of WR 135 , whose near-infrared spectrum is remarkably similar .
We thus obtain a foreground reddening of A _ { V } \simeq 8.1 mag , M _ { J } \simeq - 4.3 , \log ( L / L _ { \odot } ) \sim 5.0 - 5.2 , R = 0.8 R _ { \odot } , T \simeq 125 , 000 K , M = 7.9 - 9.7 M _ { \odot } , { \dot { M } } = ( 1.4 - 2.3 ) \times 10 ^ { -5 } M _ { \odot } yr ^ { -1 } .
The derived distance modulus , DM = 11.2 \pm 0.7 mag , places it in a region occupied by several OB associations in the Cygnus arm , and particularly in the outskirts of both Cygnus OB2 and Cygnus OB9 .
The position in the sky alone does not allow us to unambiguously assign the star to either association , but based on the much richer massive star content of Cygnus OB2 membership in this latter association appears to be more likely .