Errai
HR 8974 · HIP 116727 · γ Cep
👁️ Naked-eye
📋 A written introduction is coming — for now this page shows official values only.
Star
- Apparent magnitude
- 3.21 mag
- Parallax
- 70.91 mas → about 46 light-years away
- Spectral type
- K1IV
- Surface temperature
- 4,775 K
- Right ascension
- 354.8374°
- Declination
- 77.632°
- Bayer designation
- γ Cep
- HIP number
- 116727
- IAU name adopted
- 2015-12-15
- Name language
- Arabic
- Name origin (IAU)
- Applied in recent times from its pre-Islamic Arabian name al-ra'i, "the Shepherd". This shepherd, with the sheep he attended (al-aghnam, marked by the various dim stars nearby), and the shepherd's dog (kalb al-ra'i,marked by 28/29 [ρ] Cep), seem to form a complete group of pre-Islamic Arabian figures.
Source:ESA Hipparcos Catalogue (ESA Gaia Archive) · checked 2026-11-03 ↗NASA Exoplanet Archive (Caltech/IPAC) · checked 2026-11-03 ↗IAU Working Group on Star Names · checked 2026-11-02 ↗
Related
Constellation
Planets
In everyday life
- Light from this object takes about 46 years to reach Earth — the light you see tonight left around AD 1980 (official distance ÷ speed of light).
- At magnitude 3.2 it is bright enough for the naked eye (limit about 6) — look from somewhere dark.
- Declination 77.6° — from Seoul (37.6° N) it never sets and circles the northern sky all night.
Worked out from this object's official values.