Star profile

Rastaban

Beta Draco · Draco

3D likeness based on its real data · class G · ~5,500 K

What is Rastaban

Rastaban means 'head of the dragon' in Arabic, and together with Eltanin it forms the two bright eyes crowning the circumpolar Draco, the long serpent that coils between the two Bears in the northern sky. It is a yellow G-type giant some 380 light-years away — distant enough that the light reaching this side of the sky tonight left around 1646, when Galileo had been dead only four years and his telescope was still a rarity.

Where it is and when to see it

Rastaban lies in the northern celestial hemisphere. It is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky. Its best month of the year is June: the Sun sits at the opposite point of the sky and the star culminates around midnight. How high it climbs above the horizon depends on the latitude you watch from.

Find it on the sky map

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The signature wall

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A signature without a lock can be replaced by someone else's. The lock makes the signature permanent and lets you choose a symbolic name for the star, always shown next to the star's catalogue identifier. How the lock works

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Write my signature

A public signature from a real person. The chosen name is a symbolic denomination within Stelvia, with no official standing or IAU recognition: the sky is not for sale and belongs to no one.

Astronomical data for Rastaban

Constellation: Draco
Apparent magnitude: 2.79
Distance: 380.2 light years
Coordinates (J2000): RA 262.608° · Dec 52.301°
Catalogue: HIP 85670 · HD 159181

A symbolic commemorative gift: neither the signature nor the chosen name implies ownership of the star or recognition by the IAU.

Other stars in Draco

Draco has 122 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.

See all 122 stars in Draco