Star profile
Zeta Monocerotis
Highly luminous starWhat is Zeta Monocerotis
Zeta Monocerotis is a luminous yellow giant lying over a thousand light-years away, set in a faint modern constellation that barely registers to the naked eye. Its light, thousands of times more powerful than the Sun's, crosses interstellar space for an entire millennium before finally touching our telescopes here on Earth. The Unicorn quietly keeps this beacon, bending the dark between Orion and Canis Minor.
Where it is and when to see it
Zeta 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 January, when it culminates around midnight.
- From London it culminates about 36° above the horizon.
- From New York it culminates about 46° above the horizon.
- From Sydney it culminates about 59° above the horizon.
It can be seen from anywhere south of 87° N.
It ranks no. 5 in brightness among the 71 stars of Monoceros in our catalogue. To find it, start from Beta Monocerotis, the brightest: it lies about 25° away (a fist at arm's length covers about 10°).
The light you see today left it about 1,100 years ago.
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Astronomical data for Zeta Monocerotis
- Constellation
- Monoceros
- Apparent magnitude
- 4.36
- Distance
- 1059.1 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 122.149° · Dec -2.984°
- Catalogue
- HIP 39863 · HD 67594
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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
- Delta Monocerotis4.15
- Epsilon Monocerotis4.39
- 13 Monocerotis4.47
- 18 Monocerotis4.48
- 15 Monocerotis4.66