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public  Greenwich, UK Greenwich, UK  ⓘ
TimezoneEurope/London
Sunrise: 7:14 
Transit: 12:14 
Sunset: 17:14
wb_twilight   (Civil Twilight)  
What's Visible Now • Tonight Timeline
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All Constellations » Serpens » 

Unukalhai - α Serpentis (alpha Serpentis)

Above the horizon.  Rise: 23:29 | Tran: 6:03 | Set: 12:33
Alt: 44.04°   Az: 194.52°   Direction: South-South-West

Unukalhai, also designated as α Serpentis (alpha Serpentis), is a multiple giant star of spectral class K2 in the constellation of Serpens.

Unukalhai visual magnitude is 2.65. Because of its brightness, Unukalhai is clearly visible to the naked eye when observed from locations with dark skies, and should be also quite easily visible from light polluted areas.

Image of Unukalhai - α Serpentis (alpha Serpentis) star
DSS2 image of Unukalhai. The red arrow shows the motion of Unukalhai during the next 1000 years (2.28 arcmin in Right Ascension and 0.78 arcmin in declination);

Celestial Coordinates

Apparent

15h 45m 30s
+06° 20’ 52”
00h 41m 47s
16h 27m 17s

J2000

15h 44m 16s
+06° 25’ 32”

Galactic Coordinates

14.2°
44.08°

Finder Chart

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Finder chart for Unukalhai - α Serpentis (alpha Serpentis).

Magnitude, Color, Spectral Class

2.65
Giant

0.89
K2III
4368K

The red dot in the diagram below shows where Unukalhai is situated in the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram.

HR Diagram
H-R diagram showing the position of Unukalhai. Attribution: Richard Powell / CC BY-SA

Star System Properties

Unukalhai is a visual double star which can be observed only with the help of very large telescopes. The table below shows key information about the Unukalhai double sysyem:

2.65
10.95
8.3
58.2 arcsec

Distance, Radial Speed, Proper Motion

Unukalhai is distant 73.19 light years from the Sun and it is moving far from the Sun at the speed of 3 kilometers per second.

22.45
73.19
3 km/s
0.137 arcsec/y
0.047"/y

Alternative Designations

Unukalhai
α Serpentis
(alpha Serpentis)
24 Serpentis
SAO121157
SAO121157
Gl 596.2

Visibility from Your Location

Today's Unukalhai - α Serpentis (alpha Serpentis) rise, transit and set times from Greenwich, UK are the following (all times relative to the local timezone Europe/London):

Azimuth: 83.7°
Max altitude: 44.9°
Azimuth: 276.3°