29 Eridani (HIP 18122)

29 Eridani is a yellow-white main-sequence star in the constellation Eridanus. At 252 light years away, it shines at an apparent visual magnitude of 6.73. It is moving through the Galaxy at a speed of 25.1 km/s relative to the Sun.

Sky position: RA 3h 52.5m, Dec -5° 3.2'

Common designations: 29 Eridani, HD 24371, HIP 18122, Gaia DR3 3246133194237648640

29 Eridani has the spectral type F2V. 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 29 Eridani in the sky

29 Eridani lies in Eridanus. With a declination of -5° 3.2', it is visible from the entire Southern Hemisphere and from the Northern Hemisphere up to about latitude 85° 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 29 Eridani

Astrometry and spectroscopy

Right Ascension (J2000)	58.12857387° (3h 52.5m)
Declination (J2000)	-5.05413643° (-5° 3.2')
Galactic Longitude	194.10638744°
Galactic Latitude	-41.61251061°
Proper motion RA	7.21 mas/yr
Proper motion Dec	31.04 mas/yr
Parallax	12.97 ± 0.03 mas
Spectral Type	F2V
Radial Velocity	22.20 km/s

Photometry

Band	Magnitude	Abs. Mag.
B	7.12	2.68
V	6.73	2.29
J	5.93	1.50
H	5.74	1.30
K	5.66	1.23

Colour index B-V: +0.39

Derivations

Heliocentric distance: 77.12 pc (252 light years) (0.2% margin of error)
Absolute visual magnitude: 2.29
Transverse velocity: 11.6 km/s
Space velocity relative to the Sun: 25.1 km/s
Galactic position (X, Y, Z): -55.9 pc, -14.1 pc, -51.2 pc
Galactic velocity (U, V, W): -23.4 km/s, 2.6 km/s, -8.5 km/s

Data: Extended Hipparcos Compilation (XHIP) and SIMBAD.