g Eridani, a yellow giant star in Eridanus
g Eridani is a yellow giant star in the constellation Eridanus. At 218 light years away, it shines at an apparent visual magnitude of 4.17.
g Eridani (HIP 17874)
g Eridani is a yellow giant star in the constellation Eridanus. At 218 light years away, it shines at an apparent visual magnitude of 4.17. It is moving through the Galaxy at a speed of 21.5 km/s relative to the Sun.
Sky position: RA 3h 49.5m, Dec -36° 12.0'
Common designations: g Eridani, HR 1195, HD 24160, Gaia DR3 4858358982514762368, HIP 17874
g Eridani has the spectral type G7III. 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 g Eridani in the sky
g Eridani lies in Eridanus. With a declination of -36° 12.0', it is visible from the entire Southern Hemisphere and from the Northern Hemisphere up to about latitude 54° N. Observers poleward of latitude 54° 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 g Eridani
Astrometry and spectroscopy
| Right Ascension (J2000) | 57.36352608° (3h 49.5m) |
| Declination (J2000) | -36.20025674° (-36° 12.0') |
| Galactic Longitude | 237.88544614° |
| Galactic Latitude | -51.39966598° |
| Proper motion RA | -45.55 mas/yr |
| Proper motion Dec | -49.50 mas/yr |
| Parallax | 14.98 ± 0.09 mas |
| Spectral Type | G7III |
| Radial Velocity | 2.69 km/s |
Photometry
| Band | Magnitude | Abs. Mag. |
|---|---|---|
| U | 5.80 | 1.68 |
| B | 5.12 | 1.00 |
| V | 4.17 | 0.05 |
| R | 3.46 | -0.66 |
| I | 2.96 | -1.16 |
| J | 2.66 | -1.46 |
| H | 2.20 | -1.92 |
| K | 2.09 | -2.03 |
Colour index B-V: +0.95
Derivations
- Heliocentric distance: 66.76 pc (218 light years) (0.6% margin of error)
- Absolute visual magnitude: 0.05
- Transverse velocity: 21.3 km/s
- Space velocity relative to the Sun: 21.5 km/s
- Galactic position (X, Y, Z): -22.1 pc, -35.3 pc, -52.2 pc
- Galactic velocity (U, V, W): 18.4 km/s, -0.4 km/s, -11.0 km/s
Data: Extended Hipparcos Compilation (XHIP) and SIMBAD.