Star profile

45 Draco

Highly luminous star

3D likeness based on its real data · class F · ~6,500 K

What is 45 Draco

45 Draconis is a luminous F-type yellow star burning more than two thousand light-years away, in the winding stretch of Draco that coils between the two Bears. Distant and bright at once, its faint glow to the eye has been travelling since the centuries of the Roman Empire and earlier still. When those photons set out, not a single line of Don Quixote had yet been written on Earth.

Where it is and when to see it

45 Draco lies in the northern celestial hemisphere. It is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky. Its best month of the year is July, when it culminates around midnight.

From London it never sets and culminates about 84° up.
From New York it never sets and culminates about 74° up.
From Sydney it never rises above the horizon.

It can be seen from anywhere north of 33° S.

It ranks no. 24 in brightness among the 122 stars of Draco in our catalogue. To find it, start from Eltanin, the brightest: it lies about 8° away (a fist at arm's length covers about 10°).

The light you see today left it about 2,100 years ago.

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Astronomical data for 45 Draco

Constellation: Draco
Apparent magnitude: 4.77
Distance: 2118.2 light years
Coordinates (J2000): RA 278.144° · Dec 57.046°
Catalogue: HIP 90905 · HD 171635

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Other stars in Draco

Draco has 122 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.

See all 122 stars in Draco