Nu Ceti, a yellow giant star in Cetus
Nu Ceti is a yellow giant star in the constellation Cetus. At 403 light years away, it shines at an apparent visual magnitude of 4.87.
Nu Ceti (HIP 12093)
Nu Ceti is a yellow giant star in the constellation Cetus. At 403 light years away, it shines at an apparent visual magnitude of 4.87. It is moving through the Galaxy at a speed of 21.1 km/s relative to the Sun.
Sky position: RA 2h 35.9m, Dec +5° 35.6'
Common designations: Nu Ceti, 78 Ceti, HR 754, HD 16161, Gaia DR3 18118925129052544, HIP 12093
Nu Ceti has the spectral type G8III. G-type stars are yellow stars of about 5,300 to 6,000 K, the same class as the Sun. Their spectra show strong lines of ionized calcium and many metals. Its luminosity class III marks it as a giant: an evolved star that has left the main sequence and swollen to many times its original size.
How to find Nu Ceti in the sky
Nu Ceti lies in Cetus. With a declination of +5° 35.6', it is visible from the entire Northern Hemisphere and from the Southern Hemisphere down to about latitude 84° S. It is bright enough to see with the naked eye under dark skies. It is highest in the sky at local midnight around November, which makes the weeks around that month the best time to observe it.
Tabulated data for Nu Ceti
Astrometry and spectroscopy
| Right Ascension (J2000) | 38.96864187° (2h 35.9m) |
| Declination (J2000) | 5.59324000° (+5° 35.6') |
| Galactic Longitude | 164.47833202° |
| Galactic Latitude | -48.67044506° |
| Proper motion RA | -27.59 mas/yr |
| Proper motion Dec | -22.20 mas/yr |
| Parallax | 8.09 ± 0.26 mas |
| Spectral Type | G8III |
| Radial Velocity | 3.86 km/s |
Photometry
| Band | Magnitude | Abs. Mag. |
|---|---|---|
| B | 5.74 | 0.28 |
| V | 4.87 | -0.59 |
| J | 3.54 | -1.92 |
| H | 3.01 | -2.45 |
| K | 2.91 | -2.55 |
Colour index B-V: +0.87
Derivations
- Heliocentric distance: 123.60 pc (403 light years) (3.3% margin of error)
- Absolute visual magnitude: -0.59
- Transverse velocity: 20.7 km/s
- Space velocity relative to the Sun: 21.1 km/s
- Galactic position (X, Y, Z): -78.6 pc, 21.8 pc, -92.8 pc
- Galactic velocity (U, V, W): 13.5 km/s, 1.8 km/s, -16.1 km/s
Data: Extended Hipparcos Compilation (XHIP) and SIMBAD.