It is radiating 340 times the Sun's luminosity from its enlarged photosphere at an effective temperature of 5,333 K.[3] There is an X-ray source within 12″ of these coordinates.

Its temperature and luminosity place it within the Hertzsprung gap, a region of the H-R diagram where stars more massive than the sun are evolving rapidly away from the main sequence towards becoming red giants.

However, the chemical composition of its surface indicates that it has already experienced the first dredge-up of fusion products that occurs soon after a star reaches the red giant branch.

[15] It belongs to a small group of known stars that have been called carbon-deficient red giants and may have experienced binary mass exchanges.

Consequently, the Chinese name for Alpha Sagittae itself is 左旗一 (Zuǒ Qí yī, English: the First Star of Left Flag).