Star profile

Tau Librae

Hot blue star

3D likeness based on its real data · class B · ~15,000 K

What is Tau Librae

Tau Librae burns blue at 367 light-years, set in the scales that part summer from southern autumn. It is a young, hot star — the kind that turns spectroscopic catalogues turquoise and dies within a few hundred million years. Look south on a clear night: what you see is light that left when Galileo had yet to point his telescope at the sky.

Where it is and when to see it

Tau Librae 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 culminates about 9° above the horizon.
From New York it culminates about 20° above the horizon.
From Sydney it culminates about 86° above the horizon.

It can be seen from anywhere south of 60° N.

It ranks no. 5 in brightness among the 49 stars of Libra in our catalogue. To find it, start from Zubeneschamali, the brightest: it lies about 21° away (a fist at arm's length covers about 10°).

The light you see today left it about 370 years ago.

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Astronomical data for Tau Librae

Constellation: Libra
Apparent magnitude: 3.66
Distance: 366.9 light years
Coordinates (J2000): RA 234.664° · Dec -29.778°
Catalogue: HIP 76600 · HD 139365

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Other stars in Libra

Libra has 49 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.

See all 49 stars in Libra