Alp-1

Its story

Alpha-1 Librae is the fainter component of the double system marking one pan of the Scales, some seventy-five light-years away. Together with its brighter sister Alpha-2 it forms a pair easily split in binoculars, giving observers one of the most accessible doubles in the spring sky. Its calm white light underlines the border between Virgo and Scorpius that the ancients once called the claws of the scorpion.