Star profile
3 Monocerotis
Hot blue starWhat is 3 Monocerotis
3 Monocerotis is a blue B5III giant about 784 light-years away, in the quiet constellation of the Unicorn. It shines around eleven hundred times brighter than the Sun; all that light pours from a surface so hot it gives the star a blue-white cast. It is drifting from us at 39 km/s, a silent retreat that the geometry of space hides from the unaided eye.
Where it is and when to see it
3 Monocerotis lies in the southern 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 28° above the horizon.
- From New York it culminates about 39° above the horizon.
- From Sydney it culminates about 67° above the horizon.
It can be seen from anywhere south of 79° N.
It ranks no. 13 in brightness among the 71 stars of Monoceros in our catalogue. To find it, start from Beta Monocerotis, the brightest: it lies about 8° away (a fist at arm's length covers about 10°).
The light you see today left it about 780 years ago.
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Astronomical data for 3 Monocerotis
- Constellation
- Monoceros
- Apparent magnitude
- 4.92
- Distance
- 784.1 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 90.460° · Dec -10.598°
- Catalogue
- HIP 28574 · HD 40967
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Other stars in Monoceros
Monoceros has 71 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- Beta Monocerotis3.76
- Alpha Monocerotis3.94
- Gamma Monocerotis3.99
- 28 Monocerotis4.69
- 17 Monocerotis4.77
- 20 Monocerotis4.91
- 27 Monocerotis4.93
- 19 Monocerotis4.99