Beta Tauri (β Tau / β Tauri) is the second brightest star in the constellation Taurus, with apparent magnitude 1.7. Because it is on the boundary of Taurus with Auriga, it also has the redundant Bayer designation Gamma Aurigae, which is today very rarely used. It also has the traditional name Elnath or El Nath.
Beta Tauri has spectral type is B7. Its distance from Earth is approximately 130 light-years.
The traditional name is from the Arabic النطح an-naţħ "the butting" (i.e., with the bull's horns). As in many other (but not all) Arabic star names, the article ال is transliterated literally as el, despite the fact that in Arabic pronunciation it's assimilated to the following n.
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