Star profile

Delta 2 Grus

Cool red star

3D likeness based on its real data · class M · ~3,200 K

What is Delta 2 Grus

Delta-2 Gruis is a deeply evolved red giant, cool down to about 3000 degrees and some seven hundred times more luminous than the Sun, hanging at 330 light-years in the southern sky. It pulses on several periods at once —twenty, twenty-four, thirty-two days— like an organ tuning many pipes at the same time without ever resolving the chord. With its optical twin Delta-1 it forms a striking pair that looks double yet is merely a line-of-sight coincidence.

Where it is and when to see it

Delta 2 Grus 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 never rises above the horizon.
From New York it culminates about 6° above the horizon.
From Sydney it culminates about 80° above the horizon.

It can be seen from anywhere south of 46° N.

It ranks no. 8 in brightness among the 39 stars of Grus in our catalogue. To find it, start from Alnair, the brightest: it lies about 5° away (a fist at arm's length covers about 10°).

The light you see today left it about 330 years ago.

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Astronomical data for Delta 2 Grus

Constellation: Grus
Apparent magnitude: 4.12
Distance: 330.2 light years
Coordinates (J2000): RA 337.439° · Dec -43.749°
Catalogue: HIP 111043 · HD 213080

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Other stars in Grus

Grus has 39 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.

See all 39 stars in Grus