Star profile
Theta Reticulum
Hot blue starWhat is Theta Reticulum
Theta Reticuli is a very young southern double: a B9 blue subgiant some 166 million years old, with three and a half times the Sun's mass, paired with a fainter Am sister orbiting at 4 arcseconds and sharing her distance and motion. She lives in Reticulum, a small grid of sky named by Lacaille in the 18th century. At 461 light-years, two points almost fused like drops of mercury.
Where it is and when to see it
Theta Reticulum lies in the southern 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 rises above the horizon.
- From New York it never rises above the horizon.
- From Sydney it never sets and culminates about 61° up.
It can be seen from anywhere south of 27° N.
It ranks no. 15 in brightness among the 16 stars of Reticulum in our catalogue. To find it, start from Alpha Reticulum, the brightest: it lies about 1° away (a fist at arm's length covers about 10°).
The light you see today left it about 460 years ago.
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Astronomical data for Theta Reticulum
- Constellation
- Reticulum
- Apparent magnitude
- 5.88
- Distance
- 460.7 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 64.418° · Dec -63.255°
- Catalogue
- HIP 20020 · HD 27657
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Other stars in Reticulum
Reticulum has 16 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- Alpha Reticulum3.33
- Beta Reticulum3.84
- Epsilon Reticulum4.44
- Zeta 1 Reticulum5.53
- HIP 208255.74
- HIP 212535.79
- HIP 163685.81
- HIP 206195.94