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public  Greenwich, UK Greenwich, UK  ⓘ
TimezoneEurope/London
Sunrise: 5:05 
Transit: 12:56 
Sunset: 20:48
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All Constellations » Centaurus » 

μ Centauri (mu Centauri)

Below the horizon.  Never rises today
Alt: -37.58°   Az: 246.13°   Direction: West-South-West

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 09s
-42° 35’ 56”
06h 40m 21s
20h 31m 31s

J2000

13h 49m 36s
-42° 28’ 26”

Galactic Coordinates

314.24°
19.12°

Finder Chart

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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