i Eridani, a blue-white main-sequence star in Eridanus
i Eridani is a blue-white main-sequence star in the constellation Eridanus. At 362 light years away, it shines at an apparent visual magnitude of 5.09.
i Eridani (HIP 18213)
i Eridani is a blue-white main-sequence star in the constellation Eridanus. At 362 light years away, it shines at an apparent visual magnitude of 5.09. It is moving through the Galaxy at a speed of 26.0 km/s relative to the Sun.
Sky position: RA 3h 53.6m, Dec -34° 43.9'
Common designations: i Eridani, HR 1214, HD 24626, HIP 18213, Gaia DR3 4859106719140684800
i Eridani has the spectral type B6/7V. B-type stars are hot (about 10,000 to 30,000 K), luminous and blue-white. They are massive, short-lived stars, typically only tens of millions of years old, and are common in young clusters and OB associations. 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 i Eridani in the sky
i Eridani lies in Eridanus. With a declination of -34° 43.9', it is visible from the entire Southern Hemisphere and from the Northern Hemisphere up to about latitude 55° N. Observers poleward of latitude 55° 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 i Eridani
Astrometry and spectroscopy
| Right Ascension (J2000) | 58.41228081° (3h 53.6m) |
| Declination (J2000) | -34.73229731° (-34° 43.9') |
| Galactic Longitude | 235.56815577° |
| Galactic Latitude | -50.53080477° |
| Proper motion RA | 31.80 mas/yr |
| Proper motion Dec | -1.90 mas/yr |
| Parallax | 9.00 ± 0.08 mas |
| Spectral Type | B6/7V |
| Radial Velocity | 19.83 km/s |
Photometry
| Band | Magnitude | Abs. Mag. |
|---|---|---|
| B | 4.96 | -0.27 |
| V | 5.09 | -0.14 |
| J | 5.39 | 0.16 |
| H | 5.45 | 0.22 |
| K | 5.46 | 0.23 |
Colour index B-V: -0.13
Derivations
- Heliocentric distance: 111.09 pc (362 light years) (0.9% margin of error)
- Absolute visual magnitude: -0.14
- Transverse velocity: 16.8 km/s
- Space velocity relative to the Sun: 26.0 km/s
- Galactic position (X, Y, Z): -39.9 pc, -58.2 pc, -85.8 pc
- Galactic velocity (U, V, W): -13.2 km/s, -21.9 km/s, -4.7 km/s
Data: Extended Hipparcos Compilation (XHIP) and SIMBAD.