Star profile

Tau Boötis

3D likeness based on its real data · class F · ~6,500 K

What is Tau Boötis

Tau Boötis is a yellow-white star just over fifty light-years away, famous for hosting one of the earliest confirmed exoplanets, a gas giant discovered in 1996 that orbits in barely three days. It is also a binary, whose small red dwarf companion takes thousands of years to complete a single revolution. The pair has become a small laboratory where pioneering techniques to detect planetary atmospheres have been tested.

Where it is and when to see it

Tau Boötis lies in the northern 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 culminates about 56° above the horizon.
From New York it culminates about 67° above the horizon.
From Sydney it culminates about 39° above the horizon.

It can be seen from anywhere north of 73° S.

It ranks no. 15 in brightness among the 88 stars of Boötes in our catalogue. To find it, start from Arcturus, the brightest: it lies about 7° away (a fist at arm's length covers about 10°).

The light you see today left it about 51 years ago.

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Astronomical data for Tau Boötis

Constellation: Boötes
Apparent magnitude: 4.50
Distance: 50.9 light years
Coordinates (J2000): RA 206.816° · Dec 17.457°
Catalogue: HIP 67275 · HD 120136

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Other stars in Boötes

Boötes has 88 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.

See all 88 stars in Boötes