Star profile
Lambda 2 Tucanae
What is Lambda 2 Tucanae
Lambda-2 Tucanae is a yellow G-type star 222 light-years away, a solitary light in the southern constellation of the Toucan, a sky so sparsely populated that it served sixteenth-century European navigators as a reference in southern seas. The constellation itself was carved out of the unmapped austral sky by Dutch astronomers Keyser and de Houtman around 1597. The light reaching us tonight set out around 1804, when Beethoven was premiering his Third Symphony in Vienna.
Where it is and when to see it
Lambda 2 Tucanae lies in the southern celestial hemisphere. It is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky. Its best month of the year is August, when it culminates around midnight.
- From London it never rises above the horizon.
- From New York it never rises above the horizon.
- From Sydney it never sets and culminates about 54° up.
It can be seen from anywhere south of 20° N.
It ranks no. 15 in brightness among the 28 stars of Tucana in our catalogue. To find it, start from Alpha Tucanae, the brightest: it lies about 19° away (a fist at arm's length covers about 10°).
The light you see today left it about 220 years ago.
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Astronomical data for Lambda 2 Tucanae
- Constellation
- Tucana
- Apparent magnitude
- 5.45
- Distance
- 221.9 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 13.751° · Dec -69.527°
- Catalogue
- HIP 4293 · HD 5457
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Other stars in Tucana
Tucana has 28 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- Alpha Tucanae2.87
- Gamma Tucanae3.99
- Zeta Tucanae4.23
- HIP 1106495.31
- Iota Tucanae5.36
- Rho Tucanae5.38
- Pi Tucanae5.50
- HIP 3775.59