SkyRef / Stars

Sadalmelik

α Aqr. Magnitude 2.96, yellow-orange. Comfortably visible to the naked eye from a suburban sky.

The numbers

Designationα Aqr
Magnitude2.96
Colouryellow-orange
Right ascension22.096h
Declination-0.32°
B−V index0.98
CatalogueHR 8414

What you are looking at

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

Sadalmelik shines at magnitude 2.96, making it comfortably visible to the naked eye from a suburban sky. Its B−V colour index of 0.98 makes it yellow-orange to the eye, corresponding to a surface temperature of around 5,000 K.

It sits at right ascension 22.10 hours and declination -0.3°. It straddles the celestial equator, so it is visible from essentially anywhere on Earth at the right time of year.

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