Dabih

Its story

Dabih, on the head of Capricorn, preserves the Arabic name «al-dhābiḥ», «the slaughterer», recalling pre-Islamic rituals tied to the star's heliacal rising. It is a luminous white star which the naked eye sees as a single point, yet through binoculars splits into two companions of contrasting hue. Its light departs 327 years before reaching us — from the very place where the sky changes zodiacal sign in the depth of winter.