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public  Greenwich, UK Greenwich, UK  ⓘ
TimezoneEurope/London
Sunrise: 7:27 
Transit: 12:14 
Sunset: 17:01
wb_twilight   (Nautical Twilight)  
What's Visible Now • Tonight Timeline
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All Constellations » Taurus » 

Alcyone - η Tauri (eta Tauri)

Below the horizon.  Rise: 10:17 | Tran: 18:32 | Set: 2:51
Alt: -14.26°   Az: 356.34°   Direction: North

Alcyone, also designated as η Tauri (eta Tauri), is a multiple giant star of spectral class B7 in the constellation of Taurus.

Alcyone visual magnitude is 2.87. Because of its brightness, Alcyone is clearly visible to the naked eye when observed from locations with dark skies, and should be also quite easily visible from light polluted areas.

Image of Alcyone - η Tauri (eta Tauri) star
DSS2 image of Alcyone. The red arrow shows the motion of Alcyone during the next 10000 years (3.17 arcmin in Right Ascension and -7.67 arcmin in declination);

Celestial Coordinates

Apparent

03h 48m 58s
+24° 10’ 51”
11h 44m 26s
15h 33m 25s

J2000

03h 47m 29s
+24° 06’ 18”

Galactic Coordinates

166.67°
-23.45°

Finder Chart

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Finder chart for Alcyone - η Tauri (eta Tauri).

Magnitude, Color, Spectral Class

2.87
Giant

-2.39
B7III
11407K

The red dot in the diagram below shows where Alcyone is situated in the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram.

HR Diagram
H-R diagram showing the position of Alcyone. Attribution: Richard Powell / CC BY-SA

Star System Properties

Alcyone is a visual double star which can be observed only with the help of very large telescopes. The table below shows key information about the Alcyone double sysyem:

2.87
4.47
1.6
0 arcsec

Distance, Radial Speed, Proper Motion

Alcyone is distant 367.53 light years from the Sun and it is moving far from the Sun at the speed of 10 kilometers per second.

112.74
367.53
10 km/s
0.019 arcsec/y
-0.046"/y

Alternative Designations

Alcyone
η Tauri
(eta Tauri)
SAO76199
SAO76199

Visibility from Your Location

Today's Alcyone - η Tauri (eta Tauri) rise, transit and set times from Greenwich, UK are the following (all times relative to the local timezone Europe/London):

Azimuth: 65.8°
Max altitude: 62.7°
Azimuth: 294.2°