6 Bootis, an orange giant star in Boötes
6 Bootis is an orange giant star in the constellation Boötes. At 687 light years away, it shines at an apparent visual magnitude of 4.91.
6 Bootis (HIP 67480)
6 Bootis is an orange giant star in the constellation Boötes. At 687 light years away, it shines at an apparent visual magnitude of 4.91. It is moving through the Galaxy at a speed of 35.7 km/s relative to the Sun.
Sky position: RA 13h 49.7m, Dec +21° 15.8'
Common designations: 6 Bootis, e Bootis, HR 5201, HD 120539, HIP 67480, Gaia DR3 1250169120491310720
6 Bootis 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 6 Bootis in the sky
6 Bootis lies in Boötes. With a declination of +21° 15.8', it is visible from the entire Northern Hemisphere and from the Southern Hemisphere down to about latitude 69° S. It is bright enough to see with the naked eye under dark skies. It is highest in the sky at local midnight around May, which makes the weeks around that month the best time to observe it.
Tabulated data for 6 Bootis
Astrometry and spectroscopy
| Right Ascension (J2000) | 207.42843654° (13h 49.7m) |
| Declination (J2000) | 21.26410131° (+21° 15.8') |
| Galactic Longitude | 12.24760206° |
| Galactic Latitude | 75.48868745° |
| Proper motion RA | 31.23 mas/yr |
| Proper motion Dec | 17.20 mas/yr |
| Parallax | 4.75 ± 0.63 mas |
| Spectral Type | K4III |
| Radial Velocity | -2.60 km/s |
Photometry
| Band | Magnitude | Abs. Mag. |
|---|---|---|
| B | 6.33 | -0.29 |
| V | 4.91 | -1.71 |
| J | 2.55 | -4.07 |
| H | 1.83 | -4.79 |
| K | 1.71 | -4.91 |
Colour index B-V: +1.42
Derivations
- Heliocentric distance: 210.56 pc (687 light years) (13.2% margin of error)
- Absolute visual magnitude: -1.71
- Transverse velocity: 35.6 km/s
- Space velocity relative to the Sun: 35.7 km/s
- Galactic position (X, Y, Z): 51.6 pc, 11.2 pc, 203.8 pc
- Galactic velocity (U, V, W): 12.2 km/s, 32.7 km/s, -7.6 km/s
Data: Extended Hipparcos Compilation (XHIP) and SIMBAD.