H Puppis, a white subgiant star in Puppis
H Puppis is a white subgiant star in the constellation Puppis. At 201 light years away, it shines at an apparent visual magnitude of 4.92.
H Puppis (HIP 34059)
H Puppis is a white subgiant star in the constellation Puppis. At 201 light years away, it shines at an apparent visual magnitude of 4.92. It is moving through the Galaxy at a speed of 53.8 km/s relative to the Sun.
Sky position: RA 7h 3.9m, Dec -49° 35.0'
Common designations: 61 Puppis, H Puppis, HR 2672, HD 53811, HIP 34059, Gaia DR3 5508149631314682752
H Puppis has the spectral type A4IV. A-type stars are white stars with surface temperatures of roughly 7,500 to 10,000 K. Their spectra are dominated by strong hydrogen lines, and many of them rotate rapidly. Its luminosity class IV marks it as a subgiant: it has exhausted hydrogen in its core and is beginning to expand toward the giant phase.
How to find H Puppis in the sky
H Puppis lies in Puppis. With a declination of -49° 35.0', 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 February, which makes the weeks around that month the best time to observe it.
Tabulated data for H Puppis
Astrometry and spectroscopy
| Right Ascension (J2000) | 105.97334219° (7h 3.9m) |
| Declination (J2000) | -49.58393872° (-49° 35.0') |
| Galactic Longitude | 259.90849643° |
| Galactic Latitude | -18.41049908° |
| Proper motion RA | -56.88 mas/yr |
| Proper motion Dec | 149.11 mas/yr |
| Parallax | 16.21 ± 0.09 mas |
| Spectral Type | A4IV |
| Radial Velocity | 26.80 km/s |
Photometry
| Band | Magnitude | Abs. Mag. |
|---|---|---|
| B | 5.04 | 1.09 |
| V | 4.92 | 0.97 |
| J | 4.86 | 0.91 |
| H | 4.72 | 0.77 |
| K | 4.57 | 0.62 |
Colour index B-V: +0.12
Derivations
- Heliocentric distance: 61.70 pc (201 light years) (0.5% margin of error)
- Absolute visual magnitude: 0.97
- Transverse velocity: 46.7 km/s
- Space velocity relative to the Sun: 53.8 km/s
- Galactic position (X, Y, Z): -10.3 pc, -57.6 pc, -19.5 pc
- Galactic velocity (U, V, W): -50.4 km/s, -16.8 km/s, -8.7 km/s
Data: Extended Hipparcos Compilation (XHIP) and SIMBAD.