Star profile
56 Orionis
Highly luminous starWhat is 56 Orionis
56 Orionis burns more than 1,250 light-years away, set on the eastern flank of the hunter, not far from the belt. It is a luminous K-type giant that has exhausted its core hydrogen and swelled into an orange sun, hundreds of times brighter than ours. The light reaching the eye tonight left its surface long before the first ships ever circled the Earth.
Where it is and when to see it
56 Orionis lies in the northern celestial hemisphere. It is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky. Its best month of the year is December, when it culminates around midnight.
- From London it culminates about 40° above the horizon.
- From New York it culminates about 51° above the horizon.
- From Sydney it culminates about 54° above the horizon.
It can be seen from anywhere north of 88° S.
It ranks no. 39 in brightness among the 128 stars of Orion in our catalogue. To find it, start from Rigel, the brightest: it lies about 14° away (a fist at arm's length covers about 10°).
The light you see today left it about 1,300 years ago.
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Astronomical data for 56 Orionis
- Constellation
- Orion
- Apparent magnitude
- 4.76
- Distance
- 1259.5 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 88.110° · Dec 1.855°
- Catalogue
- HIP 27750 · HD 39400
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Other stars in Orion
Orion has 128 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- RigelBeta Orionis0.18
- BetelgeuseAlpha Orionis0.45
- BellatrixGamma Orionis1.64
- Omicron 1 Orionis4.71
- 31 Orionis4.71
- 22 Orionis4.72
- 49 Orionis4.77
- HIP 261994.78