Star profile

Zeta Capricorni

3D likeness based on its real data · class G · ~5,500 K

What is Zeta Capricorni

Zeta Capricorni is a textbook barium star: a yellow giant whose atmosphere was salted aeons ago with heavy elements —praseodymium, carbon— transferred from a companion that has since collapsed into a white dwarf. What looks like a single light is actually the fossil of an intimate exchange between two stars.

Where it is and when to see it

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

From London it culminates about 16° above the horizon.
From New York it culminates about 27° above the horizon.
From Sydney it culminates about 79° above the horizon.

It can be seen from anywhere south of 68° N.

It ranks no. 5 in brightness among the 48 stars of Capricornus in our catalogue. To find it, start from Deneb Algedi, the brightest: it lies about 8° away (a fist at arm's length covers about 10°).

The light you see today left it about 390 years ago.

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Astronomical data for Zeta Capricorni

Constellation: Capricornus
Apparent magnitude: 3.77
Distance: 385.6 light years
Coordinates (J2000): RA 321.667° · Dec -22.411°
Catalogue: HIP 105881 · HD 204075

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Other stars in Capricornus

Capricornus has 48 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.

See all 48 stars in Capricornus