Kappa Andromedae

Kappa Andromedae (κ And, κ Andromedae) is the Bayer designation for a bright star in the constellation of Andromeda. Its apparent visual magnitude is 4.1. Based on the star's ranking on the Bortle Dark-Sky Scale, it is luminous enough to be visible from the suburbs and from urban outskirts, but not from brightly lit inner city regions. Parallax measurements made during the Hipparcos mission place it at a distance of approximately 168 light-years (52 parsecs) from Earth.

Kappa Andromedae has a stellar classification of B9 IVn, indicating that it is a subgiant star in the process of evolving away from the main sequence. It has 2.3 times the radius of the Sun and is spinning rapidly, with a projected rotational velocity of 176 km/s. The outer envelope of the star is radiating energy into space with an effective temperature of 11,361 K, producing a blue-white hue.