14 Eridani (HIP 15244)

14 Eridani is a yellow-white main-sequence star in the constellation Eridanus. At 123 light years away, it shines at an apparent visual magnitude of 6.14. It is moving through the Galaxy at a speed of 9.1 km/s relative to the Sun.

Sky position: RA 3h 16.6m, Dec -9° 9.3'

Common designations: 14 Eridani, HR 988, HD 20395, HIP 15244, Gaia DR3 5166645550267371776

14 Eridani has the spectral type F5VFe-0.7CH-0.5. 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 14 Eridani in the sky

14 Eridani lies in Eridanus. With a declination of -9° 9.3', 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 December, which makes the weeks around that month the best time to observe it.

Tabulated data for 14 Eridani

Astrometry and spectroscopy

Right Ascension (J2000)	49.14893980° (3h 16.6m)
Declination (J2000)	-9.15460337° (-9° 9.3')
Galactic Longitude	192.19214562°
Galactic Latitude	-51.33137771°
Proper motion RA	16.36 mas/yr
Proper motion Dec	38.03 mas/yr
Parallax	26.56 ± 0.48 mas
Spectral Type	F5VFe-0.7CH-0.5
Radial Velocity	-5.30 km/s

Photometry

Band	Magnitude	Abs. Mag.
B	6.54	3.66
V	6.14	3.26
J	5.35	2.47
H	5.17	2.29
K	5.08	2.21

Colour index B-V: +0.40

Derivations

Heliocentric distance: 37.64 pc (123 light years) (1.8% margin of error)
Absolute visual magnitude: 3.26
Transverse velocity: 7.4 km/s
Space velocity relative to the Sun: 9.1 km/s
Galactic position (X, Y, Z): -23.0 pc, -5.0 pc, -29.4 pc
Galactic velocity (U, V, W): -2.3 km/s, 3.8 km/s, 8.0 km/s

Data: Extended Hipparcos Compilation (XHIP) and SIMBAD.