Nobody points out the dim figure at astronomy open houses.
Yet the ghostly Giraffe is not without its highlights, one of which is its luminary, Beta. This great star looks faint only because of its large distance of 1000 light years. The star is far enough away, and close enough to the Milky Way, that it is dimmed some 15 percent by interstellar dust. With a mass around 7 times that of the Sun, Beta Cam is only around 40 million years old. Beta Cam is also a double mystery.