Alpha Equulei (α Equulei, abbreviated Alpha Equ, α Equ), officially named Kitalpha , is a star in the constellation of Equuleus.
It is a high proper-motion star only 190 light-years away.
Nomenclature
α Equulei (Latinised to Alpha Equulei) is the star's Bayer designation.
It bore the traditional name Kitalpha (rarely Kitel Phard or Kitalphar), a contraction of the Arabic name قطعة الفرس qiṭ‘a(t) al-faras—"a piece of the horse".
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 Kitalpha for this star on 21 August 2016 and it is now so entered in the IAU Catalog of Star Names.
In Chinese,  (), meaning Emptiness, is an asterism consisting of Alpha Equulei and Beta Aquarii. 中國星座神話
, written by 陳久金.
Published by 台灣書房出版有限公司, 2005, .
Consequently, the Chinese name for Alpha Equulei itself is  (, ). 香港太空館
- 研究資源 - 亮星中英對照表 , Hong Kong Space Museum.
Accessed on line November 23, 2010.
Properties
The overall appearance of α Equulei is a G-type giant with an apparent magnitude of +3.92, but it is a spectroscopic binary consisting of two individual stars.
The primary star is a G7 giant about fifty times more luminous than the Sun.
It has an effective temperature of  and a radius of 9.2 times greater than the Sun.
The secondary is an A-type dwarf about 26 times as luminous as the sun.
It has an effective temperature of 8,150 K and a radius 2.6 times greater than the sun.
It is a chemically peculiar Am star.
The two stars revolve in a circular orbit every 98.8 days.
Their respective orbital velocities allow their masses to be calculated at  and , respectively.
References
Equulei, Alpha Category:Equuleus Category:G-type giants Category:A-type main-sequence stars Category:Spectroscopic binaries Kitalpha 104987 Equulei, 08 8131 202447 BD+04 4635
