
Star profile
Zeta Lupi
What is Zeta Lupi
Zeta Lupi is a yellow red-clump giant, a star that has exhausted its core hydrogen and now quietly fuses helium. It spans nine times the Sun and shines fifty times brighter, 117 light-years away in the constellation of the Wolf. An F-type dwarf companion trails it at 71 arcseconds, enough to be resolved with a modest telescope under clean southern skies.
Where it is and when to see it
Zeta Lupi 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 never rises above the horizon.
- From Sydney it culminates about 72° above the horizon.
It can be seen from anywhere south of 38° N.
It ranks no. 6 in brightness among the 74 stars of Lupus in our catalogue. To find it, start from Alpha Lupi, the brightest: it lies about 7° away (a fist at arm's length covers about 10°).
The light you see today left it about 120 years ago.
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Astronomical data for Zeta Lupi
- Constellation
- Lupus
- Apparent magnitude
- 3.41
- Distance
- 117.3 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 228.071° · Dec -52.099°
- Catalogue
- HIP 74395 · HD 134505
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Other stars in Lupus
Lupus has 74 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- Alpha Lupi2.30
- Beta Lupi2.68
- Gamma Lupi2.80
- Delta Lupi3.22
- Epsilon Lupi3.37
- Eta Lupi3.42
- Iota Lupi3.55
- Phi 1 Lupi3.57