Alpha Camelopardalis Star Facts

Alpha Camelopardalis is a very luminous supergiant star located in the constellation of Camelopardalis, The Giraffe. Alpha Camelopardalis colour is blue - white, although not the hottest stars, they are considerably hotter than our own star which is white.

Alpha Camelopardalis temperature range is more than 30,000 Kelvin. Alpha Camelopardalis effective temperature is 9,202 Kelvin which is hotter than the Sun's effective temperature, which is 5,777 Kelvin. Based on a parallax of 0.52, Alpha Camelopardalis distance from Earth can be calculated at being 6,272.37 light years away or 2127.66 parsecs.

Alpha Camelopardalis is a naked-eye star, so you don't need a telescope or binoculars when you look up on a clear night. The lower the magnitude, the easier it will be to see it.

Alpha Camelopardalis is a major star and forms part of the constellation.

Alpha Camelopardalis is a variable star, its brightness varies in magnitude between 4.2770 to 4.3200. The smaller number is the brightest the star gets.

Physical Properties

Alpha Camelopardalis Colour and Spectral Type

Alpha Camelopardalis spectral type of O9.5Ia SB: which means its colour and type is blue - white supergiant star. There is no relationship between colour and size. For example, a red star can be large or small. Small stars are more energy efficient than larger stars and live longer.

Iron Abundance

Alpha Camelopardalis Iron Abundance is -0.1 with an error value of 0.04 Fe/H, with the Sun having a value of 1 to put it into context. The value comes from the Hipparcos Extended Catalog.

Alpha Camelopardalis Magnitude (Apparent / Absolute / Visible)

A number represents a star’s magnitude, whether apparent/visual or absolute. The smaller the number, the brighter the star is. The Sun is the brightest star and therefore has the lowest of all magnitudes, -26.74. A faint star will have a high number.

Alpha Camelopardalis apparent magnitude is 4.26, which is a measure of the star's brightness as seen from Earth. Apparent Magnitude is also known as Visual Magnitude.

If you use the 1997 parallax value, Alpha Camelopardalis' absolute magnitude is -7.38. If you use the 2007 parallax value, Alpha Camelopardalis' absolute magnitude is -7.16. Absolute Magnitude is the star's apparent magnitude from 10 parsecs or 32.6 light years. The magnitude assumes nothing is between the object and the viewer, such as dust clouds. To compare different stars' actual brightness, you would best use Absolute rather than Apparent Magnitude.

Alpha Camelopardalis is a naked-eye star, that is one is visible from Earth without needing binoculars or a telescope. The lower the Apparent Magnitude of a star or other object is, the easier it is to see in the night sky. An object with a magnitude greater than 6.5 cannot be seen without a telescope or other device.

Alpha Camelopardalis Distance from Earth

Alpha Camelopardalis distance from Earth is 6939.65 light-years away from Earth or 2127.66 parsecs. If you want that in miles, it is about 40,795,602,571,013,639.137, based on 1 Ly = 5,878,625,373,183.61 miles. The distance is calculated using the parallax from the original Hipparcos data released in 1997 which is 0.47000.

In 2007, Hipparcos data was revised with a new parallax of 0.52000, which puts the Alpha Camelopardalis distance from Earth as 6272.37 light years or 1923.08 parsecs. It should not be taken as though the star is moving closer or further away from Earth. It is purely that the distance was recalculated.

An Astronomical Unit is the distance between Earth and the Sun. The number of A.U. is the number of times that the star is from the Earth compared to the Sun. When you use the 2007 distance, Alpha Camelopardalis is roughly 396,660,959.626 Astronomical Units from the Earth/Sun give or take a few.