Star profile
Mu Centauri
Variable starWhat is Mu Centauri
Mu Centauri is a hot blue B-type giant some 506 light-years away, embedded deep in the Centaur. It is a textbook Be star: it spins so fast that it flings off an equatorial disc of hot gas, episodes that make its brightness flicker and wrap it in a veil invisible to the eye. Its blue-white light, delicate in the deep southern sky, set out toward us when printing presses were just being invented in Europe and no one yet suspected that stars could have spinning atmospheres of their own.
Where it is and when to see it
Mu Centauri lies in the southern celestial hemisphere. It is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky. Its best month of the year is May, when it culminates around midnight.
- From London it never rises above the horizon.
- From New York it culminates about 7° above the horizon.
- From Sydney it culminates about 81° above the horizon.
It can be seen from anywhere south of 48° N.
It ranks no. 14 in brightness among the 174 stars of Centaurus in our catalogue. To find it, start from Rigil Kentaurus, the brightest: it lies about 20° away (a fist at arm's length covers about 10°).
The light you see today left it about 510 years ago.
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Astronomical data for Mu Centauri
- Constellation
- Centaurus
- Apparent magnitude
- 3.47
- Distance
- 505.7 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 207.404° · Dec -42.474°
- Catalogue
- HIP 67472 · HD 120324
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Other stars in Centaurus
Centaurus has 174 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- Rigil KentaurusAlpha 1 Centauri-0.01
- HadarBeta Centauri0.61
- TolimanAlpha 2 Centauri1.35
- Lambda Centauri3.11
- Kappa Centauri3.13
- Nu Centauri3.41
- Phi Centauri3.83
- Tau Centauri3.85