Star profile

Mu Fornax

3D likeness based on its real data · class A · ~8,500 K

What is Mu Fornax

μ Fornacis shines white at 320 light-years, set in the small southern Furnace that Lacaille named in honor of the chemists' furnaces of the eighteenth century. An A-class star, hotter than the Sun and giving off a clean white light, it is young by stellar standards and still vigorous. It belongs to a quiet constellation rarely taught — yet one that hides some of the deepest extragalactic fields ever studied by telescopes.

Where it is and when to see it

Mu Fornax lies in the southern celestial hemisphere. It is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky. Its best month of the year is October, when it culminates around midnight.

From London it culminates about 8° above the horizon.
From New York it culminates about 19° above the horizon.
From Sydney it culminates about 87° above the horizon.

It can be seen from anywhere south of 59° N.

It ranks no. 8 in brightness among the 26 stars of Fornax in our catalogue. To find it, start from Dalim, the brightest: it lies about 13° away (a fist at arm's length covers about 10°).

The light you see today left it about 320 years ago.

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Astronomical data for Mu Fornax

Constellation: Fornax
Apparent magnitude: 5.27
Distance: 320.4 light years
Coordinates (J2000): RA 33.227° · Dec -30.724°
Catalogue: HIP 10320 · HD 13709

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Other stars in Fornax

Fornax has 26 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.

See all 26 stars in Fornax