Shatabhisha
HR 8698 · HIP 112961 · λ Aqr
👁️ Naked-eye
📋 A written introduction is coming — for now this page shows official values only.
Star
- Apparent magnitude
- 3.79 mag
- Parallax
- 8.47 mas → about 385.1 light-years away
- Spectral type
- M2IIIvar
- Right ascension
- 343.1536°
- Declination
- -7.5796°
- Designation
- HR 8698
- Bayer designation
- λ Aqr
- HIP number
- 112961
- IAU name adopted
- 2025-09-22
- Name language
- Sanskrit
- Name origin (IAU)
- Śatabhiṣa (शतभिष), literally "hundred physicians", is the name of the 24th nakshatra of Vedic astronomy. Its earliest attestation is in a Vedic religious text (Atharvaveda) from the first millennium BCE, and an astronomy text (Vedanga Jyotisha) that dates around 300 BCE. As the yogatara (main star) of this nakshatra, λ Aquarii stands "pars pro toto" for the entire constellation.
Source:IAU Working Group on Star Names · checked 2026-11-02 ↗ESA Hipparcos Catalogue (ESA Gaia Archive) · checked 2026-11-03 ↗
Related
Constellation
In everyday life
- Light from this object takes about 385 years to reach Earth — the light you see tonight left around AD 1641 (official distance ÷ speed of light).
- At magnitude 3.8 it is bright enough for the naked eye (limit about 6) — look from somewhere dark.
- Declination -7.6° — it rises above the horizon in Seoul (37.6° N), so it is visible from Korea in the right season.
Worked out from this object's official values.