Star profile

Mu Hydrae

3D likeness based on its real data · class K · ~4,200 K

What is Mu Hydrae

Mu Hydrae burns with an orange glow more than two hundred light-years away, in the long middle stretch of Hydra. It is a K-type giant that has left behind its era of stable fusion and now swells its outer envelope while exchanging the white of its youth for this mature amber tone. Every photon reaching the human eye tonight set out around the time Newton was publishing his Principia, and has travelled more than two centuries with nothing to interrupt it but interstellar dust.

Where it is and when to see it

Mu Hydrae lies in the southern celestial hemisphere. It is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky. Its best month of the year is March, when it culminates around midnight.

From London it culminates about 22° above the horizon.
From New York it culminates about 32° above the horizon.
From Sydney it culminates about 73° above the horizon.

It can be seen from anywhere south of 73° N.

It ranks no. 9 in brightness among the 121 stars of Hydra in our catalogue. To find it, start from Alphard, the brightest: it lies about 16° away (a fist at arm's length covers about 10°).

The light you see today left it about 230 years ago.

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Astronomical data for Mu Hydrae

Constellation: Hydra
Apparent magnitude: 3.83
Distance: 234.2 light years
Coordinates (J2000): RA 156.523° · Dec -16.836°
Catalogue: HIP 51069 · HD 90432

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Other stars in Hydra

Hydra has 121 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.

See all 121 stars in Hydra