Rho Fornacis, a yellow giant star in Fornax
Rho Fornacis is a yellow giant star in the constellation Fornax. At 283 light years away, it shines at an apparent visual magnitude of 5.54.
Rho Fornacis (HIP 17738)
Rho Fornacis is a yellow giant star in the constellation Fornax. At 283 light years away, it shines at an apparent visual magnitude of 5.54. It is moving through the Galaxy at a speed of 109.2 km/s relative to the Sun.
Sky position: RA 3h 47.9m, Dec -30° 10.1'
Common designations: Rho Fornacis, HR 1184, HD 23940, HIP 17738, Gaia DR3 4887842970929434880
Rho Fornacis has the spectral type G6III. 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 Rho Fornacis in the sky
Rho Fornacis lies in Fornax. With a declination of -30° 10.1', it is visible from the entire Southern Hemisphere and from the Northern Hemisphere up to about latitude 60° N. Observers poleward of latitude 60° 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 December, which makes the weeks around that month the best time to observe it.
Tabulated data for Rho Fornacis
Astrometry and spectroscopy
| Right Ascension (J2000) | 56.98350138° (3h 47.9m) |
| Declination (J2000) | -30.16788279° (-30° 10.1') |
| Galactic Longitude | 228.19626433° |
| Galactic Latitude | -51.39648494° |
| Proper motion RA | 25.93 mas/yr |
| Proper motion Dec | -231.40 mas/yr |
| Parallax | 11.53 ± 0.05 mas |
| Spectral Type | G6III |
| Radial Velocity | 52.60 km/s |
Photometry
| Band | Magnitude | Abs. Mag. |
|---|---|---|
| B | 6.52 | 1.83 |
| V | 5.54 | 0.85 |
| J | 3.86 | -0.83 |
| H | 3.34 | -1.35 |
| K | 3.23 | -1.46 |
Colour index B-V: +0.98
Derivations
- Heliocentric distance: 86.71 pc (283 light years) (0.4% margin of error)
- Absolute visual magnitude: 0.85
- Transverse velocity: 95.7 km/s
- Space velocity relative to the Sun: 109.2 km/s
- Galactic position (X, Y, Z): -36.1 pc, -40.3 pc, -67.8 pc
- Galactic velocity (U, V, W): 49.8 km/s, -87.9 km/s, -41.5 km/s
Data: Extended Hipparcos Compilation (XHIP) and SIMBAD.