- Stars with a name
- Cervantes
Cervantes
μ Arae
Cervantes is a yellow star like the Sun, in the constellation Ara. The light you see from it tonight left it around 1975.
Where to find it
From mid-northern latitudes, such as New York, Rome or Tokyo, it never rises: it belongs to the southern sky.
Visible to the naked eye only under a dark sky, away from town. Apparent magnitude 5.12.
What it’s like
It gives off 1.9 times as much light as the Sun.
Its surface is at about 5,600 degrees.
It is 50.6 light years away: 479 trillion kilometres.
It is the star of people born around 1975: the light that left it then is reaching Earth now.