Iota Crucis, an orange giant star in Crux
Iota Crucis is an orange giant star in the constellation Crux. At 125 light years away, it shines at an apparent visual magnitude of 4.69.
Iota Crucis (HIP 62268)
Iota Crucis is an orange giant star in the constellation Crux. At 125 light years away, it shines at an apparent visual magnitude of 4.69. It is moving through the Galaxy at a speed of 24.7 km/s relative to the Sun.
Sky position: RA 12h 45.6m, Dec -60° 58.9'
Common designations: Iota Crucis, HR 4842, HD 110829, HIP 62268, Gaia DR3 6056280336995073152
Iota Crucis has the spectral type K0III. 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 Iota Crucis in the sky
Iota Crucis lies in Crux. With a declination of -60° 58.9', it is visible from the entire Southern Hemisphere and from the Northern Hemisphere up to about latitude 29° N. Observers poleward of latitude 29° 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 April, which makes the weeks around that month the best time to observe it.
Tabulated data for Iota Crucis
Astrometry and spectroscopy
| Right Ascension (J2000) | 191.40854862° (12h 45.6m) |
| Declination (J2000) | -60.98132119° (-60° 58.9') |
| Galactic Longitude | 302.22776459° |
| Galactic Latitude | 1.88249111° |
| Proper motion RA | 112.27 mas/yr |
| Proper motion Dec | -65.64 mas/yr |
| Parallax | 26.18 ± 0.10 mas |
| Spectral Type | K0III |
| Radial Velocity | 7.45 km/s |
Photometry
| Band | Magnitude | Abs. Mag. |
|---|---|---|
| B | 5.74 | 2.83 |
| V | 4.69 | 1.78 |
| J | 2.82 | -0.09 |
| H | 2.28 | -0.63 |
| K | 2.17 | -0.74 |
Colour index B-V: +1.05
Derivations
- Heliocentric distance: 38.20 pc (125 light years) (0.4% margin of error)
- Absolute visual magnitude: 1.78
- Transverse velocity: 23.6 km/s
- Space velocity relative to the Sun: 24.7 km/s
- Galactic position (X, Y, Z): 20.4 pc, -32.3 pc, 1.3 pc
- Galactic velocity (U, V, W): 21.6 km/s, 4.4 km/s, -11.2 km/s
Data: Extended Hipparcos Compilation (XHIP) and SIMBAD.