Star profile

Chi Cancri

3D likeness based on its real data · class F · ~6,500 K

What is Chi Cancri

Chi Cancri is one of the closest stars in the Crab: a yellow-white F-type sun just 60 light-years away, slightly hotter and brighter than the Sun. It shines quietly in a constellation famous for the Beehive cluster, M44, asking for no more part than its own. Its nearness makes it a good witness of what a main-sequence star one step hotter than our own spectral class looks like from Earth, a quiet neighbour in the local solar suburb of the Milky Way.

Where it is and when to see it

Chi Cancri lies in the northern 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 66° above the horizon.
From New York it culminates about 77° above the horizon.
From Sydney it culminates about 29° above the horizon.

It can be seen from anywhere north of 63° S.

It ranks no. 7 in brightness among the 49 stars of Cancer in our catalogue. To find it, start from Tarf, the brightest: it lies about 18° away (a fist at arm's length covers about 10°).

The light you see today left it about 60 years ago.

Find it on the sky map

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A public signature from a real person. The chosen name is a symbolic denomination within Stelvia, with no official standing or IAU recognition: the sky is not for sale and belongs to no one.

Astronomical data for Chi Cancri

Constellation: Cancer
Apparent magnitude: 5.13
Distance: 59.6 light years
Coordinates (J2000): RA 125.016° · Dec 27.218°
Catalogue: HIP 40843 · HD 69897

A symbolic commemorative gift: neither the signature nor the chosen name implies ownership of the star or recognition by the IAU.

Other stars in Cancer

Cancer has 49 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.

See all 49 stars in Cancer