- Stars with a name
- Caph
Caph
β Cassiopeiae
Caph is a yellow-white giant, in the constellation Cassiopeia. The light you see from it tonight left it around 1971.
Where to find it
From mid-northern latitudes, such as New York, Rome or Tokyo, it never sets: it circles the pole all night, all year.
Bright enough to see even from a city. Apparent magnitude 2.28.
What it’s like
It gives off 30 times as much light as the Sun.
Its surface is at about 7,000 degrees.
It is 54.7 light years away: 518 trillion kilometres.
It is the star of people born around 1971: the light that left it then is reaching Earth now.