Alp

Its story

Alpha Sextantis has a quiet geographic distinction: it lies less than a quarter of a degree from the celestial equator, almost exactly on the line that divides the two hemispheres. In 1900 it sat to the north; in December 1923 it crossed to the south. It is the brightest star of Sextans, an astronomical instrument turned constellation in the seventeenth century by Johannes Hevelius. A white A0 giant, 283 light-years away, burning at 8,600 kelvin.