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Alhena

γ Gem. Magnitude 1.93, white. Comfortably visible to the naked eye from a suburban sky.

The numbers

Designationγ Gem
Magnitude1.93
Colourwhite
Right ascension6.629h
Declination+16.40°
B−V index0.00
CatalogueHR 2421

What you are looking at

Astronomers call it γ Gem — the Bayer designation, which reads as a Greek letter ranking its brightness within its constellation. Alhena is the name people actually use.

Alhena shines at magnitude 1.93, making it comfortably visible to the naked eye from a suburban sky. Its B−V colour index of 0.00 makes it white to the eye, corresponding to a surface temperature of around 8,000 K.

It sits at right ascension 6.63 hours and declination +16.4°. It straddles the celestial equator, so it is visible from essentially anywhere on Earth at the right time of year.

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