Star profile
Iota Pictor
What is Iota Pictor
Iota Pictoris is a yellow-white type F star glittering some 136 light-years away, in the Painter's Easel, a constellation drawn by Lacaille in the eighteenth century during his great cartography of the southern sky from the Cape of Good Hope. The region is famed for its neighbour Beta Pictoris, around which one of the first directly imaged protoplanetary discs was discovered.
Where it is and when to see it
Iota Pictor lies in the southern celestial hemisphere. It is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky. Its best month of the year is November, 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 culminates about 70° above the horizon.
It can be seen from anywhere south of 37° N.
It ranks no. 15 in brightness among the 23 stars of Pictor in our catalogue. To find it, start from Alpha Pictor, the brightest: it lies about 18° away (a fist at arm's length covers about 10°).
The light you see today left it about 140 years ago.
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Astronomical data for Iota Pictor
- Constellation
- Pictor
- Apparent magnitude
- 5.58
- Distance
- 135.6 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 72.731° · Dec -53.462°
- Catalogue
- HIP 22531 · HD 31203
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Other stars in Pictor
Pictor has 23 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- Alpha Pictor3.24
- Beta Pictor3.85
- Gamma Pictor4.50
- Eta 1 Pictor5.37
- Zeta Pictor5.44
- HIP 257685.46
- Nu Pictor5.60
- HIP 284845.65