Star profile
Imai
Delta Crucis · Crux
Variable starWhat is Imai
Imai is a blue class-B star lying 345 light-years away, one of the corners that trace the Southern Cross. Its brightness is not perfectly steady: it belongs to a family of variables that pulse on hourly timescales, oscillations so subtle they only emerged with modern photometry. In the southern sky it works as a geographic anchor, alongside Acrux, Becrux and Gacrux, helping to point the gaze toward the celestial south pole where no polar star stands guard.
Where it is and when to see it
Imai lies in the southern celestial hemisphere. It is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky. Its best month of the year is April, 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 65° up.
It can be seen from anywhere south of 31° N.
It ranks no. 4 in brightness among the 32 stars of Crux in our catalogue. To find it, start from Acrux, the brightest: it lies about 5° away (a fist at arm's length covers about 10°).
The light you see today left it about 350 years ago.
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Astronomical data for Imai
- Constellation
- Crux
- Apparent magnitude
- 2.79
- Distance
- 345.2 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 183.786° · Dec -58.749°
- Catalogue
- HIP 59747 · HD 106490
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Other stars in Crux
Crux has 32 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- AcruxAlpha 1 Crucis0.77
- MimosaBeta Crucis1.25
- GacruxGamma Crucis1.59
- GinanEpsilon Crucis3.59
- Mu 1 Crucis4.03
- Zeta Crucis4.06
- Eta Crucis4.14
- Theta 1 Crucis4.32