The star, due to its striking dark red color, was named "Granátová hvězda" (Garnet Star) by William Herschel - it belongs to the reddest stars in the entire sky, which is easily verifiable even to the unaided human eye. Even in a small telescope, it provides a nice view. Gradually, when observed with a larger telescope, it can take on an orange-red or orange-yellow hue. It has a surface temperature of only 3,500 K, while its diameter is 70 times larger than that of the Sun. This M-type spectrum star is actually much brighter in comparison to another known red supergiant - Betelgeuse in Orion, it is at least as bright as 174,000 Suns and has an absolute magnitude of -8.3. We perceive it as a faint star in the sky only because of its large distance of 2,800 light-years.