[1] Although it is bright enough to be seen with the naked eye, the declination of this star means that it is best viewed from the southern hemisphere and is only readily visible south of the Tropic of Cancer.

At this evolutionary stage, the surface has expanded to 13 times the radius of the Sun and the outer envelope has an effective temperature of 4,800 K.[8] X-ray emission has been detected from this star, with an estimated luminosity of 3 × 1029 erg s−1.

[14] Alpha Reticuli has a 12th-magnitude visual companion, CCDM J04144-6228B, at an angular separation of 48 arcseconds away along a position angle of 355°.

[12] In Chinese, caused by adaptation of the European southern hemisphere constellations into the Chinese system, 夾白 (Jiá Bái), means White Patches Attached, and it refers to an asterism consisting of α Reticuli and θ Doradus.

Consequently, α Reticuli itself is known as 夾白二 (Jiá Bái èr, English: the Second Star of White Patches Attached.