Q Scorpii, a yellow giant star in Scorpius
Q Scorpii is a yellow giant star in the constellation Scorpius. At 158 light years away, it shines at an apparent visual magnitude of 4.27.
Q Scorpii (HIP 86170)
Q Scorpii is a yellow giant star in the constellation Scorpius. At 158 light years away, it shines at an apparent visual magnitude of 4.27. It is moving through the Galaxy at a speed of 69.5 km/s relative to the Sun.
Sky position: RA 17h 36.5m, Dec -38° 38.1'
Common designations: Q Scorpii, HR 6546, HD 159433, HIP 86170, Gaia DR3 5961830948155839360
Q Scorpii has the spectral type G8/K0III/IV. G-type stars are yellow stars of about 5,300 to 6,000 K, the same class as the Sun. Their spectra show strong lines of ionized calcium and many metals. 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 Q Scorpii in the sky
Q Scorpii lies in Scorpius. With a declination of -38° 38.1', it is visible from the entire Southern Hemisphere and from the Northern Hemisphere up to about latitude 51° N. Observers poleward of latitude 51° 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 July, which makes the weeks around that month the best time to observe it.
Tabulated data for Q Scorpii
Astrometry and spectroscopy
| Right Ascension (J2000) | 264.13689643° (17h 36.5m) |
| Declination (J2000) | -38.63524774° (-38° 38.1') |
| Galactic Longitude | 350.76626096° |
| Galactic Latitude | -3.52865998° |
| Proper motion RA | -16.76 mas/yr |
| Proper motion Dec | -218.28 mas/yr |
| Parallax | 20.69 ± 0.22 mas |
| Spectral Type | G8/K0III/IV |
| Radial Velocity | -48.14 km/s |
Photometry
| Band | Magnitude | Abs. Mag. |
|---|---|---|
| B | 5.36 | 1.94 |
| V | 4.27 | 0.85 |
| J | 2.37 | -1.05 |
| H | 1.82 | -1.60 |
| K | 1.70 | -1.72 |
Colour index B-V: +1.09
Derivations
- Heliocentric distance: 48.33 pc (158 light years) (1.0% margin of error)
- Absolute visual magnitude: 0.85
- Transverse velocity: 50.2 km/s
- Space velocity relative to the Sun: 69.5 km/s
- Galactic position (X, Y, Z): 47.6 pc, -7.7 pc, -3.0 pc
- Galactic velocity (U, V, W): -56.0 km/s, -35.8 km/s, -20.5 km/s
Data: Extended Hipparcos Compilation (XHIP) and SIMBAD.