Gamma Chamaeleontis, an orange giant star in Chamaeleon
Gamma Chamaeleontis is an orange giant star in the constellation Chamaeleon. At 444 light years away, it shines at an apparent visual magnitude of 4.12.
Gamma Chamaeleontis (HIP 51839)
Gamma Chamaeleontis is an orange giant star in the constellation Chamaeleon. At 444 light years away, it shines at an apparent visual magnitude of 4.12. It is moving through the Galaxy at a speed of 33.9 km/s relative to the Sun.
Sky position: RA 10h 35.5m, Dec -78° 36.5'
Common designations: Gamma Chamaeleontis, HR 4174, HD 92305, HIP 51839, Gaia DR3 5199386085968886528
Gamma Chamaeleontis has the spectral type K4III. 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 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 Gamma Chamaeleontis in the sky
Gamma Chamaeleontis lies in Chamaeleon. With a declination of -78° 36.5', it is visible from the entire Southern Hemisphere and from the Northern Hemisphere up to about latitude 11° N. Observers poleward of latitude 11° 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 March, which makes the weeks around that month the best time to observe it.
Tabulated data for Gamma Chamaeleontis
Astrometry and spectroscopy
| Right Ascension (J2000) | 158.86710646° (10h 35.5m) |
| Declination (J2000) | -78.60778854° (-78° 36.5') |
| Galactic Longitude | 296.28145228° |
| Galactic Latitude | -17.53251941° |
| Proper motion RA | -37.93 mas/yr |
| Proper motion Dec | 11.23 mas/yr |
| Parallax | 7.35 ± 0.14 mas |
| Spectral Type | K4III |
| Radial Velocity | -22.40 km/s |
Photometry
| Band | Magnitude | Abs. Mag. |
|---|---|---|
| U | 7.65 | 1.98 |
| B | 5.70 | 0.03 |
| V | 4.12 | -1.55 |
| R | 2.86 | -2.81 |
| I | 1.88 | -3.79 |
| J | 1.34 | -4.33 |
| H | 0.49 | -5.18 |
| K | 0.30 | -5.37 |
Colour index B-V: +1.58
Derivations
- Heliocentric distance: 136.03 pc (444 light years) (1.9% margin of error)
- Absolute visual magnitude: -1.55
- Transverse velocity: 25.5 km/s
- Space velocity relative to the Sun: 33.9 km/s
- Galactic position (X, Y, Z): 57.4 pc, -116.3 pc, -41.0 pc
- Galactic velocity (U, V, W): -32.4 km/s, 10.0 km/s, 0.5 km/s
Data: Extended Hipparcos Compilation (XHIP) and SIMBAD.