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public  Greenwich, UK Greenwich, UK  ⓘ
TimezoneEurope/London
Sunrise: 7:06 
Transit: 12:13 
Sunset: 17:21
sleep   (Nighttime)  
What's Visible Now • Tonight Timeline
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All Constellations » Centaurus » 

Menkent - θ Centauri (theta Centauri)

Below the horizon.  Rise: 2:44 | Tran: 4:10 | Set: 5:36
Alt: -2.76°   Az: 153.56°   Direction: South-South-East

Menkent, also designated as θ Centauri (theta Centauri), is a double hypergiant star of spectral class K0 in the constellation of Centaurus.

Menkent visual magnitude is 2.06, making it the 54th brightest star in the sky. Because of its brightness, Menkent 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 Menkent - θ Centauri (theta Centauri) star
DSS2 image of Menkent. The red arrow shows the motion of Menkent during the next 1000 years (-8.65 arcmin in Right Ascension and -8.65 arcmin in declination);

Celestial Coordinates

Apparent

14h 08m 11s
-36° 29’ 19”
21h 45m 38s
11h 53m 50s

J2000

14h 06m 41s
-36° 22’ 11”

Galactic Coordinates

319.46°
24.08°

Finder Chart

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Finder chart for Menkent - θ Centauri (theta Centauri).

Magnitude, Color, Spectral Class

2.06
Hypergiant

0.70
K0III
4719K

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

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

Star System Properties

Menkent 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 Menkent double sysyem:

2.06
14.06
12
69.9 arcsec

Distance, Radial Speed, Proper Motion

Menkent is distant 60.91 light years from the Sun and it is moving far from the Sun at the speed of 1 kilometers per second.

18.68
60.91
1 km/s
-0.519 arcsec/y
-0.519"/y

Alternative Designations

Menkent
θ Centauri
(theta Centauri)
SAO205188
SAO205188

Visibility from Your Location

Today's Menkent - θ Centauri (theta Centauri) rise, transit and set times from Greenwich, UK are the following (all times relative to the local timezone Europe/London):

Azimuth: 126.5°
Max altitude: 2.0°
Azimuth: 233.5°