# Albaldah (Pi Sagittarii)

Albaldah (Pi Sagittarii) is a star in the constellation Sagittarius, magnitude 2.9.

**‘The town’ in Arabic: a heavy, fast-living giant near the Teapot that Venus will hide in 2035.**

Albaldah means ‘the town’, from the Arabic balda. A 17th-century star calendar compiled in Cairo called it the brightest of the town — Lucida Oppidi in its Latin translation. Long before that, the Akkadians may have counted it, with Zeta and Sigma Sagittarii, as Gu-shi-rab-ba, the Yoke of the Sea.

Heavy stars live fast. With nearly six times the Sun’s mass, Albaldah has already burned through the hydrogen in its core and swollen into a yellow-white bright giant — in only about 67 million years. The Sun, by comparison, is about 4.6 billion years old and still nowhere near that stage.

Look closer and it is a [triple system](https://astropilot.space/glossary/multiple-star). Two companions orbit within a fraction of an arcsecond of the main star, far too close for any amateur telescope, and nothing is yet known about their orbits.

Albaldah (Pi Sagittarii) is 510 light-years away: the light we see from it set off around 1515, 25 years after Columbus crossed the Atlantic.

## Did you know?

- **Venus will cover it in 2035.** Albaldah lies close to the ecliptic, so the Moon can pass in front of it. On 17 February 2035 Venus will hide it, as seen from parts of Antarctica and southern Australia.
- **Third Star of Establishment.** In Chinese astronomy Albaldah belongs to Jiàn, ‘Establishment’, an asterism of six stars in Sagittarius. It is the third of them.

A yellow-white 3rd-magnitude star about six degrees north-east of Nunki, the star at the top of the Teapot’s handle in Sagittarius. Compare its pale yellow with Nunki’s blue-white.

## When and where to see it

It is best placed in the evening sky around August, when it crosses the meridian at about 10 pm local time (around midnight in July). It can be seen from everywhere south of 69°N and never sets south of 69°S.

At its highest it stands 19° up from 50°N, 34° up from 35°N, 69° up from the equator, 76° up from 35°S.

## Facts

- Type: Star
- Constellation: Sagittarius
- Designations: Pi Sagittarii, π Sgr, 41 Sgr, HR 7264, HD 178524, HIP 94141
- Magnitude: 2.9
- Position: RA 19h 9.8m, Dec −21° 1′ (J2000)
- Spectral type: F2II-III
- Colour: yellow-white (B−V 0.34)
- Distance: 510 light-years
- Discovered: Known since antiquity

Open AstroPilot to see when Albaldah (Pi Sagittarii) is highest tonight from your location, how easy it is with your telescope or binoculars, and an eyepiece view. https://astropilot.space/object/albaldah