Star Stars · In Sagittarius
Albaldah
Albaldah, π Sagittarii, is a yellow-white bright giant in Sagittarius: the 155th brightest star in the night sky.
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- Constellation
- Sagittarius
- Designation
- π Sagittarii
- Apparent magnitude
- 2.88 · 155th brightest star in the night sky
- Spectral class
- F2II/III
- Distance
- 510 light-years
- Highest at midnight
- early July
- Position (J2000)
- RA 19h 10m · Dec −21° 01′
A yellow-white bright giant, around 7,200 K, like Procyon. About 28× brighter than the faintest star the eye can see. Gives off about 1,400 times the Sun's visible light. The light you are seeing left around 1516.
When to see it
On the night of Wed 7 Jul 2027, when it is highest around midnight, on each city’s own clock:
| From | Rises | Highest | Sets |
|---|---|---|---|
| London GMT+1 | 21:04 | 01:08 · 18° | 05:13 |
| New York EDT | 20:21 | 01:03 · 28° | 05:45 |
| Singapore GMT+8 | 19:17 | 01:14 · 68° | 07:11 |
| Sydney GMT+10 | 17:06 | 00:05 · 77° | 07:03 |
Common questions
- Can I see it from 50° north?
- Yes. It rises and sets, and at its highest it stands 19° up in the south.
- Can I see it from 35° south?
- Yes. It rises and sets, and at its highest it stands 76° up in the north.
- When is the best time of year to see it?
- Around early July, when it stands opposite the Sun and is highest at midnight. It comes round about two hours earlier each month, so by early October it is highest in the early evening, and in early April not until the hours before dawn.
- How far away is it, and how bright?
- It is 510 light-years away, and shines at magnitude 2.88 in our sky. From that far, the Sun would be a star of magnitude 10.8: too faint for the eye, a target for binoculars.
- Naked eye, binoculars or telescope?
- The naked eye, even from a city: at magnitude 2.88 it is brighter than the faintest stars a city sky still shows, about magnitude 4.5.
Look for
Start from Nunki: Albaldah is 6.2° north-east of it, three fingers at arm’s length.
Look for
From 50° north it climbs to 19°; from 35° north it climbs to 34°; from the equator it climbs to 69°; from 35° south it climbs to 76°.
Science
Albaldah’s surface is about 7,200 K, some 1,400 K hotter than the Sun’s 5,772 K, so its light is strongest at about 400 nm, where the Sun’s is strongest at 500 nm. Moved to 33 light-years, the distance astronomers compare stars at, it would shine at magnitude −3.1, brighter than Sirius, the brightest star in our sky.
Did you know
Against Nunki, the brighter star the hop starts from: Nunki looks 2.1 times as bright as Albaldah in our sky, but Nunki is 228 light-years away and Albaldah 510 light-years, so side by side Albaldah would give off 2.3 times as much light as Nunki.
Science
Albaldah is the 130th nearest to us of the 156 stars on these pages with a measured distance. Its nearest neighbour among them in space is Kaus Media, about 190 light-years from it; on our sky the two are 14° apart.
Look for
Albaldah lies 1.4° north of the ecliptic, close enough to the Sun’s path that the Moon can pass in front of it and the planets pass near it. The Sun goes by around early January, and for weeks either side it is lost in the glare. From 50° north it is above the horizon for about 8 hours a day, from 35° north about 10 and from 35° south about 14. It is 13° from the plane of the Milky Way.