Beta Coronae Australis, an orange giant star in Corona Australis
Beta Coronae Australis is an orange giant star in the constellation Corona Australis. At 556 light years away, it shines at an apparent visual magnitude of 4.09.
Beta Coronae Australis (HIP 94160)
Beta Coronae Australis is an orange giant star in the constellation Corona Australis. At 556 light years away, it shines at an apparent visual magnitude of 4.09. It is moving through the Galaxy at a speed of 31.2 km/s relative to the Sun.
Sky position: RA 19h 10.0m, Dec -39° 20.4'
Common designations: Beta Coronae Australis, HR 7259, HD 178345, HIP 94160, Gaia DR3 6717964750922730624
Beta Coronae Australis has the spectral type K0II/IIICNIb. 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 Beta Coronae Australis in the sky
Beta Coronae Australis lies in Corona Australis. With a declination of -39° 20.4', 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 August, which makes the weeks around that month the best time to observe it.
Tabulated data for Beta Coronae Australis
Astrometry and spectroscopy
| Right Ascension (J2000) | 287.50731969° (19h 10.0m) |
| Declination (J2000) | -39.34079269° (-39° 20.4') |
| Galactic Longitude | 358.13874605° |
| Galactic Latitude | -20.17184133° |
| Proper motion RA | 4.26 mas/yr |
| Proper motion Dec | -38.24 mas/yr |
| Parallax | 5.86 ± 0.41 mas |
| Spectral Type | K0II/IIICNIb |
| Radial Velocity | 2.70 km/s |
Photometry
| Band | Magnitude | Abs. Mag. |
|---|---|---|
| B | 5.28 | -0.88 |
| V | 4.09 | -2.06 |
| J | 2.09 | -4.07 |
| H | 1.57 | -4.59 |
| K | 1.44 | -4.72 |
Colour index B-V: +1.19
Derivations
- Heliocentric distance: 170.52 pc (556 light years) (7.1% margin of error)
- Absolute visual magnitude: -2.06
- Transverse velocity: 31.1 km/s
- Space velocity relative to the Sun: 31.2 km/s
- Galactic position (X, Y, Z): 160.0 pc, -5.2 pc, -58.8 pc
- Galactic velocity (U, V, W): -3.0 km/s, -28.0 km/s, -13.5 km/s
Data: Extended Hipparcos Compilation (XHIP) and SIMBAD.