Stars · Star in Taurus
Star
Aldebaran
The bull’s fiery eye. Its name means “the follower” — it follows the Pleiades across the sky.
- Constellation
- Taurus
- Designation
- α Tauri
- Apparent magnitude
- 0.87 · 14th brightest star in the night sky
- Spectral class
- K5III
- Distance
- 66.6 light-years
- Position (J2000)
- RA 4h 36m · Dec +16° 31′
An orange giant, around 4,500 K, like Arcturus. About 180× brighter than the faintest star the eye can see. The light you are seeing left in 1959.
Look for
It seems to belong to the V-shaped Hyades, but it is a foreground star less than half as far away.
Did you know
The Moon often passes in front of it. And Pioneer 10, drifting out of the Solar System, is heading roughly in its direction; it will pass nearby in about two million years.