Lambda Pictoris, an orange giant star in Pictor
Lambda Pictoris is an orange giant star in the constellation Pictor. At 354 light years away, it shines at an apparent visual magnitude of 5.30.
Lambda Pictoris (HIP 21914)
Lambda Pictoris is an orange giant star in the constellation Pictor. At 354 light years away, it shines at an apparent visual magnitude of 5.30. It is moving through the Galaxy at a speed of 26.1 km/s relative to the Sun.
Sky position: RA 4h 42.8m, Dec -50° 28.9'
Common designations: Lambda Pictoris, HR 1516, HD 30185, HIP 21914, Gaia DR3 4784427339626712704
Lambda Pictoris has the spectral type K0/1III. K-type stars are orange stars with surface temperatures of about 3,900 to 5,300 K. Their spectra are rich in neutral metal lines and, in the cooler examples, molecular bands. 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 Lambda Pictoris in the sky
Lambda Pictoris lies in Pictor. With a declination of -50° 28.9', it is visible from the entire Southern Hemisphere and from the Northern Hemisphere up to about latitude 40° N. Observers poleward of latitude 40° 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 Lambda Pictoris
Astrometry and spectroscopy
| Right Ascension (J2000) | 70.69343169° (4h 42.8m) |
| Declination (J2000) | -50.48133486° (-50° 28.9') |
| Galactic Longitude | 257.57993429° |
| Galactic Latitude | -40.78718768° |
| Proper motion RA | -36.01 mas/yr |
| Proper motion Dec | 34.68 mas/yr |
| Parallax | 9.21 ± 0.07 mas |
| Spectral Type | K0/1III |
| Radial Velocity | 4.60 km/s |
Photometry
| Band | Magnitude | Abs. Mag. |
|---|---|---|
| B | 6.28 | 1.10 |
| V | 5.30 | 0.12 |
| J | 3.70 | -1.48 |
| H | 3.12 | -2.06 |
| K | 2.99 | -2.18 |
Colour index B-V: +0.98
Derivations
- Heliocentric distance: 108.57 pc (354 light years) (0.8% margin of error)
- Absolute visual magnitude: 0.12
- Transverse velocity: 25.7 km/s
- Space velocity relative to the Sun: 26.1 km/s
- Galactic position (X, Y, Z): -17.7 pc, -80.3 pc, -70.9 pc
- Galactic velocity (U, V, W): -13.5 km/s, 12.9 km/s, -18.3 km/s
Data: Extended Hipparcos Compilation (XHIP) and SIMBAD.