HR 3425, a red giant star in Pyxis
HR 3425 is a red giant star in the constellation Pyxis. At 1,058 light years away, it shines at an apparent visual magnitude of 6.39.
HR 3425 (HIP 42394)
HR 3425 is a red giant star in the constellation Pyxis. At 1,058 light years away, it shines at an apparent visual magnitude of 6.39. It is moving through the Galaxy at a speed of 17.3 km/s relative to the Sun.
Sky position: RA 8h 38.7m, Dec -19° 44.2'
Common designations: HR 3425, HD 73603, HIP 42394, Gaia DR3 5703786632892023552
HR 3425 has the spectral type M1III. M-type stars are cool red stars below about 3,900 K whose spectra are dominated by titanium oxide molecular bands. Red dwarfs, red giants and red supergiants all fall in this class. 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 HR 3425 in the sky
HR 3425 lies in Pyxis. With a declination of -19° 44.2', it is visible from the entire Southern Hemisphere and from the Northern Hemisphere up to about latitude 70° N. It is just beyond naked-eye visibility; binoculars will show it easily. 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 HR 3425
Astrometry and spectroscopy
| Right Ascension (J2000) | 129.66787812° (8h 38.7m) |
| Declination (J2000) | -19.73689665° (-19° 44.2') |
| Galactic Longitude | 243.39506401° |
| Galactic Latitude | 12.93380646° |
| Proper motion RA | 10.98 mas/yr |
| Proper motion Dec | 0.72 mas/yr |
| Parallax | 3.08 ± 0.04 mas |
| Spectral Type | M1III |
| Radial Velocity | 3.50 km/s |
Photometry
| Band | Magnitude | Abs. Mag. |
|---|---|---|
| B | 8.02 | 0.47 |
| V | 6.39 | -1.16 |
| J | 3.14 | -4.41 |
| H | 2.27 | -5.29 |
| K | 2.04 | -5.51 |
Colour index B-V: +1.63
Derivations
- Heliocentric distance: 324.33 pc (1,058 light years) (1.3% margin of error)
- Absolute visual magnitude: -1.16
- Transverse velocity: 16.9 km/s
- Space velocity relative to the Sun: 17.3 km/s
- Galactic position (X, Y, Z): -141.6 pc, -282.6 pc, 72.6 pc
- Galactic velocity (U, V, W): 7.9 km/s, -4.1 km/s, 14.8 km/s
Data: Extended Hipparcos Compilation (XHIP) and SIMBAD.