We use cookies to deliver essential features and to measure their performance. Learn more.
Home
Search Objects
Major Solar System Objects
Comets
Asteroids
Spacecrafts
Star Maps
Orbits
public  Greenwich, UK Greenwich, UK  ⓘ
TimezoneEurope/London
Sunrise: 7:08 
Transit: 12:48 
Sunset: 18:26
sunny   (Daytime)  
What's Visible Now • Tonight Timeline
Search  close
All Constellations » Centaurus » 

μ Centauri (mu Centauri)

Below the horizon.  Never rises today
Alt: -28.97°   Az: 123.14°   Direction: East-South-East

μ Centauri is a variable and double sub-giant star of spectral class B2 in the constellation of Centaurus.

μ Centauri visual magnitude is 3.04. Because of its moderate brightness, μ Centauri is easily visible to the naked eye from locations with dark skies, while it might be barely visible, or not visible at all, from light-polluted skies.

Image of μ Centauri (mu Centauri) star
DSS2 image of μ Centauri. The red arrow shows the motion of μ Centauri during the next 10000 years (-3.83 arcmin in Right Ascension and -3.33 arcmin in declination);

Celestial Coordinates

Apparent

13h 51m 07s
-42° 35’ 45”
18h 22m 38s
08h 13m 45s

J2000

13h 49m 36s
-42° 28’ 26”

Galactic Coordinates

314.24°
19.12°

Finder Chart

Finder chart μ Centauri (mu Centauri) star
Simplified finder chart for μ Centauri (mu Centauri).

Magnitude, Color, Spectral Class

3.04
Sub-giant

-3.00
B2IV
12902K

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

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

Star System Properties

μ Centauri 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 μ Centauri double sysyem:

3.04
13.74
10.7
48 arcsec

Distance, Radial Speed, Proper Motion

μ Centauri is distant 526.66 light years from the Sun and it is moving far from the Sun at the speed of 9 kilometers per second.

161.55
526.66
9 km/s
-0.023 arcsec/y
-0.02"/y

Alternative Designations

μ Centauri
(mu Centauri)
SAO224471
SAO224471

Visibility from Your Location

μ Centauri (mu Centauri) is currently not visible from Greenwich, UK