The brightest star in Sextans, Alpha Sextantis, is only magnitude 4.49, and currently lies less than 1/4° south of the celestial equator, almost exactly south of Regulus in Leo. Due to precession, in 1900, α Sex was actually 7' north of the equator, rather than south of it. It crossed into the southern hemisphere in December of 1923 - although the celestial equator was actually shifting, not the star!
Properties and Evolution
Physically, α Sex is an ordinary class A0 III giant with a surface temperature of 9900 K. It shines from a distance of 285 light years with a luminosity of 122 suns. It contains 3 solar masses and has a radius only 3.8 times that of the Sun. This 300 million year old star is nearing the end of its hydrogen-fusing main-sequence lifetime. Within 60 million years, its hydrogen core will have fused to helium, and the star will become a much brighter orange giant.
The star's equatorial rotation velocity is at least 7 km/sec. Since most stars of this class rotate more rapidly, and since low rotators tend to be chemically peculiar (which α Sex is not), its rotational pole probably points towards Earth.
[Adapted from STARS by Jim Kaler, Professor Emeritus of Astronomy, University of Illinois]