Alpha Centauri A is the primary and brightest component. The three stars of the Alpha Centauri System are labelled A, B and C although Alpha Centauri C is better known as Proxima Centauri. This was a few weeks before Henderson and therefore he won the "race" to determine the distance to the stars. In the meantime, Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel at the Königsberg Observatory in Germany measured the distance of 61 Cygni and published his result in December 1838. In no hurry to publish his results, and somewhat due to a lack of confidence in his measurements, Henderson finally released his findings on January 9, 1839. However, Henderson disliked the area intensely and after only 13 months returned to his native Scotland. This is slightly less than the agreed modern value, but nevertheless remarkably accurate. Using the method of parallax he was able to calculate a distance of about 4 light-years. Thomas Henderson, a Scottish astronomer and mathematician, was the director of the Royal Observatory at the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa (between April 1832 and May 1833). Alpha Centauri was also the first star to have its distance measured. At 4.3 light-years, it's twice as near as the brightest star in the night sky, Sirius. What makes Alpha Centauri particularly important - from our perspective - is it's the closest star system to us. To astronomers, the star remains simply as Alpha Centauri. Another name is Toliman, which in Arabic means "the ostriches". The Chinese referred to it as Nan Mun or "the Southern Gate". A shorter form of this name, "Rigel Kent", is commonly used today.
Arab astronomers called it "Rigil Kentaurus", meaning "the foot of the Centaur". Unusual for a bright star, Alpha Centauri does not have a commonly agreed proper name.
This is also the nearest star system to the Solar System. For most of their orbit, the main stars are easily split with small telescopes. However, Alpha Centauri is not a single star it's a triple consisting of two bright components and a feeble red dwarf. To the naked eye it shines at apparent magnitude -0.27, which is fainter than Canopus (mag. Alpha Centauri is the third brightest star in the night sky.
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