Star profile
Tau Cassiopeiae
What is Tau Cassiopeiae
Tau Cassiopeiae inhabits the W of the northern sky, that unmistakable silhouette traced by the mythic queen as she eternally wheels around the pole. It is an orange K-type giant 174 light-years away, a star that has already crossed the midway point of its life and swells under the weight of its own evolution. Its warm light stands apart from the other whitish stars of Cassiopeia, an amber point that anchors the gaze in one of the constellations most frequented by northern observers.
Where it is and when to see it
Tau Cassiopeiae lies in the northern 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 never sets and culminates about 83° up.
- From New York it never sets and culminates about 72° up.
- From Sydney it never rises above the horizon.
It can be seen from anywhere north of 31° S.
It ranks no. 24 in brightness among the 93 stars of Cassiopeia in our catalogue. To find it, start from Cih, the brightest: it lies about 9° away (a fist at arm's length covers about 10°).
The light you see today left it about 170 years ago.
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Astronomical data for Tau Cassiopeiae
- Constellation
- Cassiopeia
- Apparent magnitude
- 4.88
- Distance
- 174.0 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 356.764° · Dec 58.652°
- Catalogue
- HIP 117301 · HD 223165
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Other stars in Cassiopeia
Cassiopeia has 93 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- CihGamma Cassiopeiae2.15
- SchedarAlpha Cassiopeiae2.24
- CaphBeta Cassiopeiae2.28
- Upsilon 1 Cassiopeiae4.83
- 1 Cassiopeiae4.84
- HIP 148624.85
- Sigma Cassiopeiae4.88
- HIP 1159904.89