Cebalrai

Its story

Cebalrai marks the right shoulder of Ophiuchus, an orange K-type giant 82 light-years away. Its name, from the Arabic «Kalb ar-Rā‘ī», means «the shepherd's dog», a reference to old pastoral figures that populated the medieval Islamic sky before the Greco-Latin constellations took hold. It is a placid star, slightly cooler than the Sun yet much larger, whose coppery glow tints that corner of the summer sky with a warm, serene hue.