Star profile
5 Lacerta
Cool red starWhat is 5 Lacerta
5 Lacertae is a colossal spectroscopic binary more than sixteen hundred light-years away, in a small constellation Hevelius drew as a lizard between Cygnus and Andromeda. Its primary is an orange-red supergiant of some 359 solar radii and twenty-five thousand solar luminosities; orbiting alongside it is a blue main-sequence star, on a period of just under 42 years. Its brightness drifts irregularly between magnitudes 4.4 and 4.6.
Where it is and when to see it
5 Lacerta lies in the northern celestial hemisphere. It is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky. Its best month of the year is September, when it culminates around midnight.
- From London it never sets and culminates about 86° up.
- From New York it culminates about 83° above the horizon.
- From Sydney it culminates about 8° above the horizon.
It can be seen from anywhere north of 42° S.
It ranks no. 3 in brightness among the 36 stars of Lacerta in our catalogue. To find it, start from Alpha Lacerta, the brightest: it lies about 3° away (a fist at arm's length covers about 10°).
The light you see today left it about 1,600 years ago.
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Astronomical data for 5 Lacerta
- Constellation
- Lacerta
- Apparent magnitude
- 4.34
- Distance
- 1647.5 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 337.383° · Dec 47.707°
- Catalogue
- HIP 111022 · HD 213310
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Other stars in Lacerta
Lacerta has 36 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- Alpha Lacerta3.76
- 1 Lacerta4.14
- Beta Lacerta4.42
- HIP 1097544.50
- 11 Lacerta4.50
- 6 Lacerta4.52
- 2 Lacerta4.55
- 4 Lacerta4.55