Star profile

Altais

Delta Draco · Draco

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

What is Altais

Altais —'the goat', from the Arabic «al-tāʾis»— is a yellow G-class giant 97 light-years away, set in the winding body of Draco that coils around the north celestial pole. Her apparent motion is exceedingly slow: in some 10,000 years she will draw near the pole and serve as polestar to human generations not yet born. The sky is not fixed but a choreography on the scale of ages.

Where it is and when to see it

Altais lies in the northern celestial hemisphere. It is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky. Its best month of the year is October, when it culminates around midnight.

From London it never sets and culminates about 74° up.
From New York it never sets and culminates about 63° up.
From Sydney it never rises above the horizon.

It can be seen from anywhere north of 22° S.

It ranks no. 4 in brightness among the 122 stars of Draco in our catalogue. To find it, start from Eltanin, the brightest: it lies about 19° away (a fist at arm's length covers about 10°).

The light you see today left it about 97 years ago.

Find it on the sky map

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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 Altais

Constellation: Draco
Apparent magnitude: 3.07
Distance: 97.4 light years
Coordinates (J2000): RA 288.138° · Dec 67.662°
Catalogue: HIP 94376 · HD 180711

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