84 Ceti (HIP 12530)

84 Ceti is a yellow-white main-sequence star in the constellation Cetus. At 74 light years away, it shines at an apparent visual magnitude of 5.71. It is moving through the Galaxy at a speed of 28.5 km/s relative to the Sun.

Sky position: RA 2h 41.2m, Dec -0° 41.7'

Common designations: 84 Ceti, HR 790, HD 16765, HIP 12530

84 Ceti has the spectral type F7V. 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 84 Ceti in the sky

84 Ceti lies in Cetus. With a declination of -0° 41.7', it is visible from the entire Southern Hemisphere and from the Northern Hemisphere up to about latitude 89° N. 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 84 Ceti

Astrometry and spectroscopy

Right Ascension (J2000)	40.30832166° (2h 41.2m)
Declination (J2000)	-0.69566235° (-0° 41.7')
Galactic Longitude	172.42114734°
Galactic Latitude	-52.68111309°
Proper motion RA	216.51 mas/yr
Proper motion Dec	-129.33 mas/yr
Parallax	44.27 ± 0.84 mas
Spectral Type	F7V
Radial Velocity	9.23 km/s

Photometry

Band	Magnitude	Abs. Mag.
B	6.23	4.46
V	5.71	3.94
J	4.71	2.95
H	4.64	2.87
K	4.51	2.74

Colour index B-V: +0.52

Derivations

Heliocentric distance: 22.59 pc (74 light years) (1.9% margin of error)
Absolute visual magnitude: 3.94
Transverse velocity: 27.0 km/s
Space velocity relative to the Sun: 28.5 km/s
Galactic position (X, Y, Z): -13.6 pc, 1.8 pc, -18.0 pc
Galactic velocity (U, V, W): -13.4 km/s, -24.9 km/s, -4.0 km/s

Data: Extended Hipparcos Compilation (XHIP) and SIMBAD.