Star profile
Iota Boötis
Variable starWhat is Iota Boötis
Iota Boötis shines just ninety-five light-years away, a white A-type star in Boötes, a celestial neighbour to brilliant Arcturus. It is a Delta Scuti variable: its surface pulses several times an hour, oscillations so rapid they escape the naked eye but which astronomers track like a goldsmith's pulse. One of the nearby stars that vibrate with metronome regularity.
Where it is and when to see it
Iota 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 March, when it culminates around midnight.
- From London it never sets and culminates about 90° up.
- From New York it never sets and culminates about 79° up.
- From Sydney it culminates about 5° above the horizon.
It can be seen from anywhere north of 39° S.
It ranks no. 20 in brightness among the 88 stars of Boötes in our catalogue. To find it, start from Arcturus, the brightest: it lies about 32° away (a fist at arm's length covers about 10°).
The light you see today left it about 95 years ago.
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Astronomical data for Iota Boötis
- Constellation
- Boötes
- Apparent magnitude
- 4.75
- Distance
- 94.8 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 214.042° · Dec 51.367°
- Catalogue
- HIP 69713 · HD 125161
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Other stars in Boötes
Boötes has 88 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- ArcturusAlpha Boötis-0.05
- IzarEpsilon Boötis2.35
- MuphridEta Boötis2.68
- Kappa 2 Boötis4.53
- Xi Boötis4.54
- Omicron Boötis4.60
- HIP 698794.80
- 34 Boötis4.80