The optical component of the pulsating binary X-ray source Cen X-3 is identified with a faint, /V/ = 13.35, heavily reddened variable star lying slightly outside the error box of the 3U catalog. It shows a double-peaked light curve with an amplitude of about 0.12 mag which agrees in both period and phase with the X-ray data. The shallower minimum coincides in time with the X-ray pulsar eclipse. The estimated distance to Cen X-3 is about 8 kpc.
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W. Krzemiński (1974) studied this question.