SkyRef / Stars

Rasalgethi

α¹ Her. Magnitude 3.48, orange-red. Visible to the naked eye from a reasonably dark site.

The numbers

Designationα¹ Her
Magnitude3.48
Colourorange-red
Right ascension17.244h
Declination+14.39°
B−V index1.44
CatalogueHR 6406

What you are looking at

Astronomers call it α¹ Her — the Bayer designation, which reads as a Greek letter ranking its brightness within its constellation. Rasalgethi is the name people actually use.

Rasalgethi shines at magnitude 3.48, making it visible to the naked eye from a reasonably dark site. Its B−V colour index of 1.44 makes it orange-red to the eye, corresponding to a surface temperature of under 4,000 K.

It sits at right ascension 17.24 hours and declination +14.4°. It straddles the celestial equator, so it is visible from essentially anywhere on Earth at the right time of year.

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