Star profile
20 Ceti
Cool red starWhat is 20 Ceti
20 Ceti is a cool red giant in Cetus, an autumn-water constellation tied to the sea-monster of Andromeda's myth. Its surface does not reach 4,000 kelvin: it burns with the coppery, serene red of stars that have exhausted the hydrogen in their core and swollen to colossal proportions. The light grazing the pupil tonight left its atmosphere 587 years ago, when the Italian Renaissance was only beginning to rewrite the world.
Where it is and when to see it
20 Ceti lies in the southern celestial hemisphere. It is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky. Its best month of the year is October, when it culminates around midnight.
- From London it culminates about 37° above the horizon.
- From New York it culminates about 48° above the horizon.
- From Sydney it culminates about 57° above the horizon.
It can be seen from anywhere south of 89° N.
It ranks no. 21 in brightness among the 111 stars of Cetus in our catalogue. To find it, start from Diphda, the brightest: it lies about 17° away (a fist at arm's length covers about 10°).
The light you see today left it about 590 years ago.
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Astronomical data for 20 Ceti
- Constellation
- Cetus
- Apparent magnitude
- 4.78
- Distance
- 586.7 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 13.252° · Dec -1.144°
- Catalogue
- HIP 4147 · HD 5112
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Other stars in Cetus
Cetus has 111 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- DiphdaBeta Ceti2.04
- MenkarAlpha Ceti2.54
- Eta Ceti3.46
- Lambda Ceti4.71
- Sigma Ceti4.74
- Phi 1 Ceti4.77
- Epsilon Ceti4.83
- Kappa 1 Ceti4.84