Bet

Its story

Beta Lacertae is one of the brightest stars in the Lizard, that subtle figure winding between Cygnus and Andromeda. It is a yellow G-type giant 170 light-years away, an older sibling of the Sun that has left its prime behind and is slowly expanding. Its warm light crosses a region of the sky often overshadowed by neighbouring constellations, yet amateur observers know well this little zigzag trail that Hevelius added to the heavens in the seventeenth century from previously scattered stars.