Gamma Comae Berenices, an orange giant star in Coma Berenices
Gamma Comae Berenices is an orange giant star in the constellation Coma Berenices. At 164 light years away, it shines at an apparent visual magnitude of 4.34.
Gamma Comae Berenices (HIP 60742)
Gamma Comae Berenices is an orange giant star in the constellation Coma Berenices. At 164 light years away, it shines at an apparent visual magnitude of 4.34. It is moving through the Galaxy at a speed of 27.9 km/s relative to the Sun.
Sky position: RA 12h 26.9m, Dec +28° 16.1'
Common designations: Gamma Comae Berenices, 15 Comae Berenices, HR 4737, HD 108381, Gaia DR3 4009317512294972160, HIP 60742
Gamma Comae Berenices has the spectral type K1IIIFe0.5. 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 Comae Berenices in the sky
Gamma Comae Berenices lies in Coma Berenices. With a declination of +28° 16.1', it is visible from the entire Northern Hemisphere and from the Southern Hemisphere down to about latitude 62° S. It is bright enough to see with the naked eye under dark skies. It is highest in the sky at local midnight around April, which makes the weeks around that month the best time to observe it.
Tabulated data for Gamma Comae Berenices
Astrometry and spectroscopy
| Right Ascension (J2000) | 186.73446877° (12h 26.9m) |
| Declination (J2000) | 28.26842180° (+28° 16.1') |
| Galactic Longitude | 199.64540550° |
| Galactic Latitude | 84.45901999° |
| Proper motion RA | -83.01 mas/yr |
| Proper motion Dec | -80.92 mas/yr |
| Parallax | 19.86 ± 0.11 mas |
| Spectral Type | K1IIIFe0.5 |
| Radial Velocity | 3.38 km/s |
Photometry
| Band | Magnitude | Abs. Mag. |
|---|---|---|
| U | 6.64 | 3.13 |
| B | 5.47 | 1.96 |
| V | 4.34 | 0.83 |
| R | 3.53 | 0.02 |
| I | 3.01 | -0.50 |
| J | 2.55 | -0.96 |
| H | 2.05 | -1.46 |
| K | 1.90 | -1.61 |
Colour index B-V: +1.13
Derivations
- Heliocentric distance: 50.34 pc (164 light years) (0.6% margin of error)
- Absolute visual magnitude: 0.83
- Transverse velocity: 27.7 km/s
- Space velocity relative to the Sun: 27.9 km/s
- Galactic position (X, Y, Z): -4.6 pc, -1.6 pc, 50.1 pc
- Galactic velocity (U, V, W): -7.7 km/s, -26.7 km/s, 1.8 km/s
Data: Extended Hipparcos Compilation (XHIP) and SIMBAD.