Star profile
Beta Dorado
Variable starWhat is Beta Dorado
Beta Doradus is one of the classical Cepheids, those yellow supergiants that pulse with the regularity of a cosmic metronome. Every 9.84 days it shifts from magnitude 4.1 to 3.5 and back, a breathing rhythm that turns it into a beacon for measuring the universe. It spans about 65 Suns and lies roughly a thousand light-years away, marking the bearing of the Goldfish across the southern sky.
Where it is and when to see it
Beta Dorado 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 never sets and culminates about 61° up.
It can be seen from anywhere south of 28° N.
It ranks no. 2 in brightness among the 18 stars of Dorado in our catalogue. To find it, start from Alpha Dorado, the brightest: it lies about 11° away (a fist at arm's length covers about 10°).
The light you see today left it about 1,000 years ago.
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Astronomical data for Beta Dorado
- Constellation
- Dorado
- Apparent magnitude
- 3.76
- Distance
- 1006.8 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 83.406° · Dec -62.490°
- Catalogue
- HIP 26069 · HD 37350
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Other stars in Dorado
Dorado has 18 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- Alpha Dorado3.30
- Gamma Dorado4.26
- Delta Dorado4.34
- HIP 278904.65
- Zeta Dorado4.71
- Theta Dorado4.81
- Eta 2 Dorado5.01
- Nu Dorado5.06