HD 31298, a blue-white giant star in Eridanus
HD 31298 is a blue-white giant star in the constellation Eridanus. At 3,326 light years away, it shines at an apparent visual magnitude of 8.36.
HD 31298 (HIP 22798)
HD 31298 is a blue-white giant star in the constellation Eridanus. At 3,326 light years away, it shines at an apparent visual magnitude of 8.36.
Sky position: RA 4h 54.3m, Dec -6° 35.2'
Common designations: HD 31298, HIP 22798, Gaia DR3 3188034480132770560
HD 31298 has the spectral type B8II/III. 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 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 HD 31298 in the sky
HD 31298 lies in Eridanus. With a declination of -6° 35.2', it is visible from the entire Southern Hemisphere and from the Northern Hemisphere up to about latitude 83° 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 HD 31298
Astrometry and spectroscopy
| Right Ascension (J2000) | 73.56361924° (4h 54.3m) |
| Declination (J2000) | -6.58706540° (-6° 35.2') |
| Galactic Longitude | 205.07474975° |
| Galactic Latitude | -29.00728814° |
| Proper motion RA | 1.09 mas/yr |
| Proper motion Dec | -6.28 mas/yr |
| Parallax | 0.98 ± 0.03 mas |
| Spectral Type | B8II/III |
Photometry
| Band | Magnitude | Abs. Mag. |
|---|---|---|
| B | 8.33 | -1.71 |
| V | 8.36 | -1.68 |
| J | 8.36 | -1.68 |
| H | 8.43 | -1.61 |
| K | 8.34 | -1.71 |
Colour index B-V: -0.03
Derivations
- Heliocentric distance: 1,019.78 pc (3,326 light years) (3.1% margin of error)
- Absolute visual magnitude: -1.68
- Transverse velocity: 30.8 km/s
Data: Extended Hipparcos Compilation (XHIP) and SIMBAD.