
Star profile
24 Canum Venaticorum
What is 24 Canum Venaticorum
24 Canum Venaticorum is a white star spinning so fast that its equator visibly bulges relative to its poles —its shape is no sphere, but a flattened ellipsoid—. Surveys detect a clear infrared excess around it, the unmistakable trace of a circumstellar dust disc and the rubble of planetesimals. Its glow crosses nearly two centuries to reach us, in a quiet northern constellation.
Where it is and when to see it
24 Canum Venaticorum lies in the northern 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 never sets and culminates about 88° up.
- From New York it culminates about 82° above the horizon.
- From Sydney it culminates about 7° above the horizon.
It can be seen from anywhere north of 41° S.
It ranks no. 3 in brightness among the 33 stars of Canes Venatici in our catalogue. To find it, start from Cor Caroli, the brightest: it lies about 13° away (a fist at arm's length covers about 10°).
The light you see today left it about 180 years ago.
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Astronomical data for 24 Canum Venaticorum
- Constellation
- Canes Venatici
- Apparent magnitude
- 4.68
- Distance
- 180.3 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 203.614° · Dec 49.016°
- Catalogue
- HIP 66234 · HD 118232
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Other stars in Canes Venatici
Canes Venatici has 33 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- Cor CaroliAlpha 2 Canum Venaticorum2.89
- CharaBeta Canum Venaticorum4.24
- 20 Canum Venaticorum4.72
- 5 Canum Venaticorum4.76
- HIP 676654.76
- 25 Canum Venaticorum4.82
- HIP 662574.91
- HIP 645404.94