Star profile
Alnasl
Gamma 2 Sagittarii · Sagittarius
What is Alnasl
Alnasl forms the tip of Sagittarius's arrow, exactly where the archer aims at the heart of the Milky Way. Its Arabic name, «An-Naṣl», means precisely «the point», and it sits some 97 light-years away as an orange K-type giant. Pointing toward it on a dark night is to gaze toward the galactic centre: in that very direction, roughly 26,000 light-years beyond, beats Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole that anchors our entire stellar neighbourhood.
Where it is and when to see it
Alnasl lies in the southern 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.
It opens in your browser. Free, no account, nothing to install.
The signature wall
Stelvia's sky works like a signature wall: anyone can leave their name and a message on a real star, and that signature goes up on the map for everyone to read. Signing is free.
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
If you don't have an account yet, we'll ask for an email to confirm it's you: we send you a link and that's it, no password.
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 Alnasl
- Constellation
- Sagittarius
- Apparent magnitude
- 2.98
- Distance
- 96.9 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 271.452° · Dec -30.424°
- Catalogue
- HIP 88635 · HD 165135
A symbolic commemorative gift: neither the signature nor the chosen name implies ownership of the star or recognition by the IAU.
Other stars in Sagittarius
Sagittarius has 117 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- Kaus AustralisEpsilon Sagittarii1.79
- NunkiSigma Sagittarii2.05
- AscellaZeta Sagittarii2.60
- Kaus MediaDelta Sagittarii2.72
- Kaus BorealisLambda Sagittarii2.82
- AlbaldahPi Sagittarii2.88
- Eta Sagittarii3.10
- Phi Sagittarii3.17