SkyRef / Stars

Capella

α Aur. Magnitude 0.08, yellow-orange. A first-magnitude star, among the brightest few dozen visible.

The numbers

Designationα Aur
Magnitude0.08
Colouryellow-orange
Right ascension5.278h
Declination+46.00°
B−V index0.80
CatalogueHR 1708

What you are looking at

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

Capella shines at magnitude 0.08, making it a first-magnitude star, among the brightest few dozen visible. Its B−V colour index of 0.80 makes it yellow-orange to the eye, corresponding to a surface temperature of around 5,000 K.

It sits at right ascension 5.28 hours and declination +46.0°. It sits well north on the sky and is comfortably placed for northern hemisphere observers.

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Other named stars

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