Magnitude 3.77 Apparent magnitude (V) 3.77 | ||
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Similar Alpha Aquarii, Gamma Aquarii, Beta Aquarii, Delta Aquarii | ||
Epsilon Aquarii (ε Aquarii, abbreviated Epsilon Aqr, ε Aqr), also named Albali, is a star in the equatorial zodiac constellation of Aquarius. It is visible to the naked eye with an apparent visual magnitude of 3.77. The distance to this star can be determined from parallax measurements, yielding an estimated value of around 208 light-years (64 pc) from the Sun.
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Nomenclature
ε Aquarii (Latinised to Epsilon Aquarii) is the star's Bayer designation.
This star bore an obscure traditional name, Albali, from the Arabic البالع albāli‘ "the swallower". (See also Albulaan.) In the catalogue of stars in the Calendarium of Al Achsasi al Mouakket, it was designated Nir Saad Bula (نير سعد ألبلع - nayyir sa'd al bulaʽ), which was translated into Latin as Lucida Fortunæ Dissipantis, meaning "the brightest of luck of the swallower". This star, along with Mu Aquarii (Albulaan) and Nu Aquarii (also Albulaan), were al Bulaʽ (البلع) "the Swallower". In 2016, the International Astronomical Union organized a Working Group on Star Names (WGSN) to catalogue and standardize proper names for stars. The WGSN approved the name Albali for this star on 12 September 2016 and it is now so entered in the IAU Catalog of Star Names.
In Chinese, 奎宿 (Nǚ Sù), meaning Girl (asterism) (or Woman), refers to an asterism consisting of Epsilon Aquarii, Mu Aquarii, 4 Aquarii, 5 Aquarii and 3 Aquarii. Consequently, Epsilon Aquarii itself is known as 女宿一 (Nǚ Sù yī, English: the First Star of Girl / Woman.)
Properties
Epsilon Aquarii is an A-type main sequence star with a stellar classification of A1 V.