HR 8881, an orange star in Cassiopeia
HR 8881 is an orange star in the constellation Cassiopeia. At 1,082 light years away, it shines at an apparent visual magnitude of 6.40.
HR 8881 (HIP 115218)
HR 8881 is an orange star in the constellation Cassiopeia. At 1,082 light years away, it shines at an apparent visual magnitude of 6.40. It is moving through the Galaxy at a speed of 39.7 km/s relative to the Sun.
Sky position: RA 23h 20.2m, Dec +61° 58.2'
Common designations: HR 8881, HD 220074, Gaia DR3 2014988549785194752, HIP 115218
HR 8881 has the spectral type K5. K-type stars are orange stars with surface temperatures of about 3,900 to 5,300 K. Their spectra are rich in neutral metal lines and, in the cooler examples, molecular bands.
How to find HR 8881 in the sky
HR 8881 lies in Cassiopeia. With a declination of +61° 58.2', it is visible from the entire Northern Hemisphere and from the Southern Hemisphere down to about latitude 28° S. Observers poleward of latitude 28° N see it as circumpolar: it never sets. It is just beyond naked-eye visibility; binoculars will show it easily. It is highest in the sky at local midnight around October, which makes the weeks around that month the best time to observe it.
Tabulated data for HR 8881
Astrometry and spectroscopy
| Right Ascension (J2000) | 350.05991478° (23h 20.2m) |
| Declination (J2000) | 61.97012798° (+61° 58.2') |
| Galactic Longitude | 112.43814714° |
| Galactic Latitude | 0.97078869° |
| Proper motion RA | 7.42 mas/yr |
| Proper motion Dec | -5.08 mas/yr |
| Parallax | 3.01 ± 0.02 mas |
| Spectral Type | K5 |
| Radial Velocity | -37.09 km/s |
Photometry
| Band | Magnitude | Abs. Mag. |
|---|---|---|
| U | 10.07 | 2.47 |
| B | 8.07 | 0.47 |
| V | 6.40 | -1.20 |
| J | 3.18 | -4.42 |
| H | 2.37 | -5.23 |
| K | 2.01 | -5.60 |
Colour index B-V: +1.67
Derivations
- Heliocentric distance: 331.82 pc (1,082 light years) (0.7% margin of error)
- Absolute visual magnitude: -1.20
- Transverse velocity: 14.1 km/s
- Space velocity relative to the Sun: 39.7 km/s
- Galactic position (X, Y, Z): -126.6 pc, 306.7 pc, 5.6 pc
- Galactic velocity (U, V, W): 6.5 km/s, -37.2 km/s, -12.2 km/s
Data: Extended Hipparcos Compilation (XHIP) and SIMBAD.