HD 208612, a blue-white main-sequence star in Capricornus
HD 208612 is a blue-white main-sequence star in the constellation Capricornus. At 837 light years away, it shines at an apparent visual magnitude of 6.80.
HD 208612 (HIP 108402)
HD 208612 is a blue-white main-sequence star in the constellation Capricornus. At 837 light years away, it shines at an apparent visual magnitude of 6.80. It is moving through the Galaxy at a speed of 11.9 km/s relative to the Sun.
Sky position: RA 21h 57.7m, Dec -8° 33.9'
Common designations: HD 208612, Gaia DR3 2618493405474743936, HIP 108402
HD 208612 has the spectral type B7Ve. B-type stars are hot (about 10,000 to 30,000 K), luminous and blue-white. They are massive, short-lived stars, typically only tens of millions of years old, and are common in young clusters and OB associations. Its luminosity class V means it is a main-sequence (dwarf) star, still fusing hydrogen into helium in its core like the Sun.
How to find HD 208612 in the sky
HD 208612 lies in Capricornus. With a declination of -8° 33.9', it is visible from the entire Southern Hemisphere and from the Northern Hemisphere up to about latitude 81° N. It is just beyond naked-eye visibility; binoculars will show it easily. It is highest in the sky at local midnight around September, which makes the weeks around that month the best time to observe it.
Tabulated data for HD 208612
Astrometry and spectroscopy
| Right Ascension (J2000) | 329.41397879° (21h 57.7m) |
| Declination (J2000) | -8.56431851° (-8° 33.9') |
| Galactic Longitude | 48.91973437° |
| Galactic Latitude | -44.97974801° |
| Proper motion RA | 8.19 mas/yr |
| Proper motion Dec | 4.70 mas/yr |
| Parallax | 3.90 ± 0.06 mas |
| Spectral Type | B7Ve |
| Radial Velocity | -3.10 km/s |
Photometry
| Band | Magnitude | Abs. Mag. |
|---|---|---|
| B | 6.74 | -0.31 |
| V | 6.80 | -0.25 |
| J | 6.84 | -0.21 |
| H | 6.91 | -0.14 |
| K | 6.80 | -0.24 |
Colour index B-V: -0.06
Derivations
- Heliocentric distance: 256.61 pc (837 light years) (1.4% margin of error)
- Absolute visual magnitude: -0.25
- Transverse velocity: 11.5 km/s
- Space velocity relative to the Sun: 11.9 km/s
- Galactic position (X, Y, Z): 119.3 pc, 136.8 pc, -181.4 pc
- Galactic velocity (U, V, W): -11.6 km/s, 1.8 km/s, -1.9 km/s
Data: Extended Hipparcos Compilation (XHIP) and SIMBAD.