Star profile
Pi Tucanae
Hot blue starWhat is Pi Tucanae
π Tucanae shines within the Toucan, a southern constellation drawn by Dutch navigators at the end of the 16th century, which also hosts the Small Magellanic Cloud —a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way—. A hot blue B-type star some 318 light-years away, her light traverses a field populated by distant objects of the deep southern hemisphere.
Where it is and when to see it
Pi Tucanae 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 never rises above the horizon.
- From Sydney it never sets and culminates about 54° up.
It can be seen from anywhere south of 20° N.
It ranks no. 16 in brightness among the 28 stars of Tucana in our catalogue. To find it, start from Alpha Tucanae, the brightest: it lies about 16° 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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A public signature from a real person. The chosen name is a symbolic denomination within Stelvia, with no official standing or IAU recognition: the sky is not for sale and belongs to no one.
Astronomical data for Pi Tucanae
- Constellation
- Tucana
- Apparent magnitude
- 5.50
- Distance
- 318.2 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 5.163° · Dec -69.625°
- Catalogue
- HIP 1647 · HD 1685
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Other stars in Tucana
Tucana has 28 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- Alpha Tucanae2.87
- Gamma Tucanae3.99
- Zeta Tucanae4.23
- Iota Tucanae5.36
- Rho Tucanae5.38
- Lambda 2 Tucanae5.45
- HIP 3775.59
- HIP 1156205.60