Brightest Stars

Alphecca, a jewel in the Northern Crown

Seated man and woman in Grecian garb painted in red, white, and black on pottery.
Dionysus, the god of wine, and Ariadne, a Minoan princess, from around 400-375 BCE, pictured on the side of an old wine bowl from Thebes. The star Alphecca represents a jewel in Ariadne’s crown. Image via Wikimedia Commons.

Alphecca has several names

Stars often have many names. The brightest star in Corona Borealis is called Alphecca, or Gemma, or Alpha Coronae Borealis or Alpha Cor Bor. The proper name for Alphecca – Gemma – means gem or jewel. So on a dark June night under a dark sky, this star lives up to its name, sparkling within a noticeable semicircle of stars, the constellation Corona Borealis the Northern Crown. In skylore, this C-shaped constellation represents the crown or wreath worn by Ariadne, an ancient Minoan princess.

Alphecca is brighter than the other stars in Corona Borealis, but it’s only moderately bright among the sky’s brightest stars. It shines between summertime’s 2 most brilliant stars: Arcturus and Vega. An imaginary line drawn between these 2 stars locates Alphecca every time, about 1/3 of the way from Arcturus to Vega.

When is Alphecca visible?

As seen from mid-northern latitudes, Alphecca shines all night long – or nearly all night long – in April, May and June. Alphecca and this glittery bowl of stars crown the sky on July evenings, and continue to grace the heavens well into November. Starting around mid-November, Alphecca appears rather low in the west-northwest sky after dusk. It sets shortly after nightfall, then reappears in the east-northeast before dawn.

Six bright stars in bowl shape against a starry sky, Alphecca noticeably brighter.
Corona Borealis, the Northern Crown, with its brightest star Alphecca. Image via Fred Espenak/ AstroPixels. Used with permission.
Starry sky photo with Northern Crown constellation marked. Arcturus visible above trees.
The seven stars that make up Corona Borealis the Northern Crown are relatively faint and best seen in a dark sky. See Alphecca, brightest star in the C? The bright star below is Arcturus. Image via AlltheSky.com.
Diagram with semicircle of stars in upper left, and star Arcturus to lower right.
Alphecca is the brightest star in a C-shaped pattern of stars: the constellation Corona Borealis. It’s near the bright star Arcturus on the sky’s dome.

Corona Borealis in skylore

In the ancient Greek myth, the C-shaped pattern of Corona Borealis represented a crown given by Dionysus to Princess Ariadne, daughter of Minos of Crete. Ariadne later married Dionysus, the Greek god of fertility and wine, and she’s said to have worn the crown to her wedding. Later, Dionysus is said to have placed her crown in the heavens to commemorate the wedding.

Alphecca in science

The star Alphecca is quite interesting in itself. Like the star Algol in the constellation Perseus, it is an eclipsing binary star, with an orbital period of about 17.4 days. In other words, the fainter of Alphecca’s 2 component stars passes in front of the brighter one, causing a slight dip in brightness. Contrast that 17.4 days orbit to Earth’s orbit around our local star, the sun, which takes one year. As one star passes in front of the other in the Alphecca system, the star’s variation in brightness is barely perceptible. Meanwhile, the other variable star we mentioned – Algol – has a winking presence easy to observe with the unaided eye.

By the way, the famous Pleiades star cluster sits almost opposite Alphecca (and Corona Borealis) on the sky’s dome. Also starting in mid-November, the Pleiades cluster appears in the east-northeast after dusk, crosses the sky during the night, then gleams over the west-northwest sky before dawn. The Pleiades and Corona Borealis trade places in the sky after about 12 hours time. In later November, look for these two star formations at about 6 p.m. local clock time, then note that they have switched positions around 6 a.m. local clock time.

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Northern Crown stars with straight green lines running at a slant from them.
Jan Wojcik, director of Reynolds Observatory at Clarkson University in New York, points out Corona Borealis with a green laser pointer. Image via Kyle Foley.

Bottom line: Alphecca is the brightest star in the constellation Corona Borealis the Northern Crown. This star is sometimes called Gemma, which means the jewel of the crown.

Read more about Corona Borealis, the Northern Crown, in July

Read more about Algol is the demon star

Posted 
June 13, 2022
 in 
Brightest Stars

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