Tau Piscis Austrini, a yellow-white main-sequence star in Piscis Austrinus
Tau Piscis Austrini is a yellow-white main-sequence star in the constellation Piscis Austrinus. At 60 light years away, it shines at an apparent visual magnitude of 4.92.
Tau Piscis Austrini (HIP 109422)
Tau Piscis Austrini is a yellow-white main-sequence star in the constellation Piscis Austrinus. At 60 light years away, it shines at an apparent visual magnitude of 4.92. It is moving through the Galaxy at a speed of 40.8 km/s relative to the Sun.
Sky position: RA 22h 10.1m, Dec -32° 32.9'
Common designations: Tau Piscis Austrini, 15 Piscis Austrini, HR 8447, HD 210302, GJ 849.1, GJ 9770, Gaia DR3 6612242034982766848, HIP 109422
Tau Piscis Austrini has the spectral type F6V. F-type stars are yellow-white stars of about 6,000 to 7,500 K, slightly hotter and more massive than the Sun. Their hydrogen lines are weaker than in A stars and metal lines become prominent. 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 Tau Piscis Austrini in the sky
Tau Piscis Austrini lies in Piscis Austrinus. With a declination of -32° 32.9', it is visible from the entire Southern Hemisphere and from the Northern Hemisphere up to about latitude 57° N. Observers poleward of latitude 57° S see it as circumpolar: it never sets. It is bright enough to see with the naked eye under dark skies. 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 Tau Piscis Austrini
Astrometry and spectroscopy
| Right Ascension (J2000) | 332.53658414° (22h 10.1m) |
| Declination (J2000) | -32.54840842° (-32° 32.9') |
| Galactic Longitude | 14.12342345° |
| Galactic Latitude | -54.81419575° |
| Proper motion RA | 428.83 mas/yr |
| Proper motion Dec | 13.47 mas/yr |
| Parallax | 54.18 ± 0.09 mas |
| Spectral Type | F6V |
| Radial Velocity | -15.90 km/s |
Photometry
| Band | Magnitude | Abs. Mag. |
|---|---|---|
| B | 5.40 | 4.07 |
| V | 4.92 | 3.59 |
| J | 3.93 | 2.60 |
| H | 3.64 | 2.31 |
| K | 3.70 | 2.37 |
Colour index B-V: +0.48
Derivations
- Heliocentric distance: 18.46 pc (60 light years) (0.2% margin of error)
- Absolute visual magnitude: 3.59
- Transverse velocity: 37.5 km/s
- Space velocity relative to the Sun: 40.8 km/s
- Galactic position (X, Y, Z): 10.3 pc, 2.6 pc, -15.1 pc
- Galactic velocity (U, V, W): -39.2 km/s, -7.3 km/s, -8.6 km/s
Data: Extended Hipparcos Compilation (XHIP) and SIMBAD.