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Stars in Puppis

f Puppis, a blue-white subgiant star in Puppis

f Puppis is a blue-white subgiant star in the constellation Puppis. At 360 light years away, it shines at an apparent visual magnitude of 4.53.

Ashland Astronomy Studio Star

f Puppis (HIP 37096)

f Puppis is a blue-white subgiant star in the constellation Puppis. At 360 light years away, it shines at an apparent visual magnitude of 4.53. It is moving through the Galaxy at a speed of 26.5 km/s relative to the Sun.

Sky position: RA 7h 37.4m, Dec -34° 58.1'

Common designations: f Puppis, HR 2937, HD 61330, HIP 37096

f Puppis has the spectral type B8IV/V. 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 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 f Puppis in the sky

f Puppis lies in Puppis. With a declination of -34° 58.1', 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 February, which makes the weeks around that month the best time to observe it.

Tabulated data for f Puppis

Astrometry and spectroscopy

Right Ascension (J2000)114.34212409° (7h 37.4m)
Declination (J2000)-34.96853080° (-34° 58.1')
Galactic Longitude248.97860384°
Galactic Latitude-6.66999781°
Proper motion RA-14.21 mas/yr
Proper motion Dec16.32 mas/yr
Parallax9.05 ± 0.40 mas
Spectral TypeB8IV/V
Radial Velocity24.00 km/s

Photometry

BandMagnitudeAbs. Mag.
U4.13-1.09
B4.44-0.78
V4.53-0.69
R4.55-0.67
I4.62-0.60
J4.71-0.51
H4.81-0.41
K4.75-0.46

Colour index B-V: -0.09

Derivations

  • Heliocentric distance: 110.50 pc (360 light years) (4.4% margin of error)
  • Absolute visual magnitude: -0.69
  • Transverse velocity: 11.3 km/s
  • Space velocity relative to the Sun: 26.5 km/s
  • Galactic position (X, Y, Z): -39.4 pc, -102.4 pc, -12.8 pc
  • Galactic velocity (U, V, W): -18.8 km/s, -18.0 km/s, -5.2 km/s

Data: Extended Hipparcos Compilation (XHIP) and SIMBAD.

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