Star
Aldebaran
Aldebaran is the bright orange star that marks the eye of Taurus the bull. Its name is Arabic for the follower, and in 2026 it sits at 10 degrees of the sign Gemini.
Where the name comes from
Aldebaran comes from the Arabic al-dabaran, the follower, because night after night it chases the Pleiades star cluster across the sky, always a step behind. It glows a steady orange and marks the eye of Taurus, the bull.
A trick of depth
Aldebaran sits right in front of a loose V-shaped cluster of stars called the Hyades, and for a long time it looked like their brightest member. It is not. Aldebaran is far closer to us than the cluster is, and only happens to fall along the same line of sight. Another reminder that a pattern in the sky can be an accident of where we stand.
What kind of star it is
Aldebaran is an orange giant, a star that has used up the hydrogen in its core and swollen to many times the Sun’s width. That is why it glows orange rather than white. Its light is close to magnitude 0.9 in the star catalogue Hali uses, which makes it one of the brightest stars in the night sky. The space probe Pioneer 10, launched in 1972, is drifting in its general direction, though it will take far longer than human history to get anywhere near.
How to find it
Follow the three stars of Orion’s Belt up and to the right. The first bright star you meet is Aldebaran, orange and unmistakable at the tip of the V of the Hyades. It is a winter evening star in the northern hemisphere and a summer one in the southern.
Aldebaran in a chart
Aldebaran sits close to the ecliptic, so the Sun, Moon and planets pass near it. By Hali’s 2026 star positions it lies at 10 degrees of the sign Gemini, and the Sun reaches that degree around 31 May each year. Ptolemy gave the bright star of the Hyades the nature of Mars, and it was one of the fifteen Behenian stars that medieval astrologers singled out. Astrologers who use fixed stars look for a planet or angle within about a degree of it and read it as courage, ambition and success that has to be earned honestly.
Common confusions
Aldebaran is often mistaken for Mars, because it is orange and sits in the same band of sky the planets travel. A quick test is that planets shine steadily while stars twinkle, especially low down. It is also not Betelgeuse, the other orange red star in the same part of the sky, which marks Orion’s shoulder.
Questions
Is Aldebaran part of the star cluster near it?
No. It appears in front of the Hyades cluster, but it is much closer to us and only lines up with them by chance. It is not a member.
Is Aldebaran one of the four royal stars?
Modern astrology books often list Aldebaran, Regulus, Antares and Fomalhaut as the four royal stars of Persia, watchers of the four directions. The grouping is popular, but its ancient Persian origin is poorly documented, so treat it as later lore.
Sources: Star name scholarship and standard stellar references. Hali star positions for 2026, from Yale Bright Star Catalogue coordinates.