Pi-6 Orionis, an orange bright giant star in Orion
Pi-6 Orionis is an orange bright giant star in the constellation Orion. At 775 light years away, it shines at an apparent visual magnitude of 4.46.
Pi-6 Orionis (HIP 23123)
Pi-6 Orionis is an orange bright giant star in the constellation Orion. At 775 light years away, it shines at an apparent visual magnitude of 4.46. It is moving through the Galaxy at a speed of 16.5 km/s relative to the Sun.
Sky position: RA 4h 58.5m, Dec +1° 42.8'
Common designations: Pi-6 Orionis, 10 Orionis, HR 1601, HD 31767, HIP 23123, Gaia DR3 3231949906557374592
Pi-6 Orionis has the spectral type K2-IIb. 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 II marks it as a bright giant, more luminous than ordinary giants.
How to find Pi-6 Orionis in the sky
Pi-6 Orionis lies in Orion. With a declination of +1° 42.8', it is visible from the entire Northern Hemisphere and from the Southern Hemisphere down to about latitude 88° S. 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 Pi-6 Orionis
Astrometry and spectroscopy
| Right Ascension (J2000) | 74.63709287° (4h 58.5m) |
| Declination (J2000) | 1.71401354° (+1° 42.8') |
| Galactic Longitude | 197.55827809° |
| Galactic Latitude | -24.01926810° |
| Proper motion RA | -0.59 mas/yr |
| Proper motion Dec | -6.48 mas/yr |
| Parallax | 4.21 ± 0.14 mas |
| Spectral Type | K2-IIb |
| Radial Velocity | 14.73 km/s |
Photometry
| Band | Magnitude | Abs. Mag. |
|---|---|---|
| B | 5.85 | -1.03 |
| V | 4.46 | -2.42 |
| J | 2.16 | -4.72 |
| H | 1.50 | -5.37 |
| K | 1.34 | -5.54 |
Colour index B-V: +1.39
Derivations
- Heliocentric distance: 237.57 pc (775 light years) (3.3% margin of error)
- Absolute visual magnitude: -2.42
- Transverse velocity: 7.3 km/s
- Space velocity relative to the Sun: 16.5 km/s
- Galactic position (X, Y, Z): -206.9 pc, -65.5 pc, -96.7 pc
- Galactic velocity (U, V, W): -9.4 km/s, -9.2 km/s, -9.9 km/s
Data: Extended Hipparcos Compilation (XHIP) and SIMBAD.