Star profile
3 Centauri
Variable starWhat is 3 Centauri
3 Centauri is a blue B-type star whose brightness does not stay still: it oscillates faintly over time, a stellar breathing that astronomers catalogue as variability. Its light crosses more than three hundred and forty years of space before reaching us, arriving from one of the oldest constellations of the southern hemisphere. In the sky it appears discreet, yet its nature —hot, massive, restless— places it among the young and violent inhabitants of the southern Milky Way.
Where it is and when to see it
3 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 April, when it culminates around midnight.
- From London it culminates about 6° above the horizon.
- From New York it culminates about 16° above the horizon.
- From Sydney it culminates about 89° above the horizon.
It can be seen from anywhere south of 57° N.
It ranks no. 32 in brightness among the 174 stars of Centaurus in our catalogue. To find it, start from Rigil Kentaurus, the brightest: it lies about 29° away (a fist at arm's length covers about 10°).
The light you see today left it about 340 years ago.
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Astronomical data for 3 Centauri
- Constellation
- Centaurus
- Apparent magnitude
- 4.32
- Distance
- 343.7 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 207.957° · Dec -32.994°
- Catalogue
- HIP 67669 · HD 120709
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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
- Xi 2 Centauri4.27
- HIP 576694.30
- HIP 700694.30
- HIP 628674.33
- Upsilon 2 Centauri4.34