How Saiph got its name<\/strong><\/h2>\nInterestingly, the name Saiph was originally attributed to Eta (\u03b7) Orionis, which sits west of the three Belt stars in Orion.<\/p>\n
It is said that Saiph\u2019s name was originally attributed to what we call Orion\u2019s Belt today, <\/span>but got mistakenly transferred to Kappa, where it remained.<\/p>\nSaiph is the sixth brightest star in Orion, appearing fainter than two of the Belt stars, but marginally brighter than Mintaka (Delta (\u03b4) Orionis) at the Belt\u2019s western end.<\/p>\n
Orions Belt by John Harding, Sheffield, S. Yorkshire, UK. Equipment: Pentax KR DLSR<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\nSaiph is a bright, B-class supergiant star that appears to shine blue-white. Its spectral class is B0.5 Ia, \u2018Ia\u2019 indicating the luminosity class \u2018bright supergiant\u2019.<\/p>\n
Saiph is estimated to lie at a distance of 650 lightyears, which makes it closer than Rigel (Beta (\u03b2) Orionis), another blue supergiant at a distance of 860 lightyears.<\/p>\n
Despite this, Rigel appears much brighter to us, a characteristic attributed to the fact that Saiph is an extremely hot star with an effective temperature of 26,227\u02daC.<\/p>\n
Have a look at star Saiph in the constellation of Orion<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\nConsequently, it radiates much of its light in the ultraviolet part of the spectrum which we can\u2019t see with our eyes.<\/p>\n
Rigel is a multiple star system, but the main component Rigel-A, has an effective temperature of 11,826\u02daC.<\/p>\n
Estimated to be around six times more massive and 22 times larger than the Sun, Saiph\u2019s luminosity is around 57,000 times greater.<\/p>\n
This guide originally appeared in the January 2022 issue of <\/strong><\/em>BBC Sky at Night Magazine<\/strong>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/body><\/html>\nBy Pete Lawrence Published: Tuesday, 04 January 2022 at 12:00 am Saiph (Kappa (\u03ba) Orionis) is one of the main pattern stars in the constellation Orion, marking its southeast corner. Saiph is typically shown marking one of Orion\u2019s knees, although the formal translation of the name means \u2018sword\u2019, from the Arabic saif al jabbar; \u2018sword […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":27741,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/01\/a-guide-to-saiph-the-knee-of-orion.jpg",2121,1414,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/01\/a-guide-to-saiph-the-knee-of-orion-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/01\/a-guide-to-saiph-the-knee-of-orion-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/01\/a-guide-to-saiph-the-knee-of-orion-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/01\/a-guide-to-saiph-the-knee-of-orion-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/01\/a-guide-to-saiph-the-knee-of-orion-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/01\/a-guide-to-saiph-the-knee-of-orion-2048x1365.jpg",2048,1365,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Pete Lawrence Published: Tuesday, 04 January 2022 at 12:00 am Saiph (Kappa (\u03ba) Orionis) is one of the main pattern stars in the constellation Orion, marking its southeast corner. Saiph is typically shown marking one of Orion\u2019s knees, although the formal translation of the name means \u2018sword\u2019, from the Arabic saif al jabbar; \u2018sword…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/27740"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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