Omicron Puppis, a blue-white subgiant star in Puppis
Omicron Puppis is a blue-white subgiant star in the constellation Puppis. At 1,083 light years away, it shines at an apparent visual magnitude of 4.49.
Omicron Puppis (HIP 38070)
Omicron Puppis is a blue-white subgiant star in the constellation Puppis. At 1,083 light years away, it shines at an apparent visual magnitude of 4.49. It is moving through the Galaxy at a speed of 23.3 km/s relative to the Sun.
Sky position: RA 7h 48.1m, Dec -25° 56.2'
Common designations: Omicron Puppis, HR 3034, HD 63462, Gaia DR3 5602287587814648448, HIP 38070
Omicron Puppis has the spectral type B1IVe. 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 Omicron Puppis in the sky
Omicron Puppis lies in Puppis. With a declination of -25° 56.2', it is visible from the entire Southern Hemisphere and from the Northern Hemisphere up to about latitude 64° N. 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 Omicron Puppis
Astrometry and spectroscopy
| Right Ascension (J2000) | 117.02153597° (7h 48.1m) |
| Declination (J2000) | -25.93716961° (-25° 56.2') |
| Galactic Longitude | 242.24602308° |
| Galactic Latitude | -0.20765863° |
| Proper motion RA | -10.26 mas/yr |
| Proper motion Dec | 4.71 mas/yr |
| Parallax | 3.01 ± 0.17 mas |
| Spectral Type | B1IVe |
| Radial Velocity | 15.00 km/s |
Photometry
| Band | Magnitude | Abs. Mag. |
|---|---|---|
| U | 3.42 | -4.19 |
| B | 4.43 | -3.18 |
| V | 4.49 | -3.12 |
| R | 4.37 | -3.24 |
| I | 4.37 | -3.24 |
| J | 4.39 | -3.22 |
| H | 4.43 | -3.17 |
| K | 4.17 | -3.44 |
Colour index B-V: -0.06
Derivations
- Heliocentric distance: 332.12 pc (1,083 light years) (5.7% margin of error)
- Absolute visual magnitude: -3.12
- Transverse velocity: 17.8 km/s
- Space velocity relative to the Sun: 23.3 km/s
- Galactic position (X, Y, Z): -154.7 pc, -293.9 pc, -1.2 pc
- Galactic velocity (U, V, W): -19.9 km/s, -6.5 km/s, -10.2 km/s
Data: Extended Hipparcos Compilation (XHIP) and SIMBAD.