Star profile
Alya B
Theta 2 Serpens · Serpens
What is Alya B
Alya B shares its name with the visual neighbour Alya, forming a discreet optical pair in Serpens Cauda 169.5 light-years away. It too is a white class-A star, slightly fainter and somewhat more distant than its companion, a reminder that two points apparently joined in the sky can in fact lie tens of light-years apart. Small distinctions of colour and brightness, perceptible only to the patient eye under a truly dark sky.
Where it is and when to see it
Alya B lies in the northern celestial hemisphere. It is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky. Its best month of the year is July, when it culminates around midnight.
- From London it culminates about 43° above the horizon.
- From New York it culminates about 54° above the horizon.
- From Sydney it culminates about 52° above the horizon.
It can be seen from anywhere north of 86° S.
It ranks no. 19 in brightness among the 65 stars of Serpens in our catalogue. To find it, start from Unukalhai, the brightest: it lies about 48° away (a fist at arm's length covers about 10°).
The light you see today left it about 170 years ago.
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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 Alya B
- Constellation
- Serpens
- Apparent magnitude
- 4.98
- Distance
- 169.5 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 284.061° · Dec 4.202°
- Catalogue
- HIP 92951 · HD 175639
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Other stars in Serpens
Serpens has 65 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- UnukalhaiAlpha Serpens2.63
- Eta Serpens3.23
- Mu Serpens3.54
- Rho Serpens4.74
- Pi Serpens4.82
- Sigma Serpens4.82
- 5 Serpens5.04
- 36 Serpens5.09