Your guide to the Solar System and the night sky
By donating now you help keep this site alive and free from ads. Please consider supporting this project.
🌎  Observing from: Greenwich, United Kingdom [change]
🌅 Sunrise: 6:38  ☀️ Transit: 13:03  🌅 Sunset: 19:28

Paikauhale - τ Scorpii (tau Scorpii)

Paikauhale, also designated as τ Scorpii (tau Scorpii), is a hypergiant star in the constellation of Scorpius.

Paikauhale visual magnitude is 2.82. Thanks to its high brightness, Paikauhale is clearly visible when observed from locations with dark skyes, and should be also quite easily visible from light polluted areas.

The table below summarizes the key facts about Paikauhale:

2.82
Hypergiant
Paikauhale - τ Scorpii (tau Scorpii) is below the horizon from Greenwich, United Kingdom [change].

Celestial coordinates and finder chart of Paikauhale

Paikauhale is situated south of the celestial equator, as such, it is more easily visible from the southern emisphere. Celestial coordinates for the J2000 equinox as well as galactic coordinates of Paikauhale are provided in the following table:

16h 35m 53s
-28° 12’ 57”
351.54°
12.81°
Scorpius

The simplified sky map below shows the position of Paikauhale in the sky:

Finder chart Paikauhale - τ Scorpii (tau Scorpii) star
Simplified finder chart for Paikauhale - τ Scorpii (tau Scorpii).

Visibility of Paikauhale from your location

Location: Greenwich, United Kingdom [change]
Latitude: 51° 28’ 47” N
Longitude: 0° 00’ 00” E
Timezone: Europe/London

Today's Paikauhale - τ Scorpii (tau Scorpii) rise, transit and set times from Greenwich, United Kingdom [change] are the following (all times relative to the local timezone Europe/London):

Azimuth: 118.2°
Max altitude: 10.3°
Azimuth: 241.8°
Paikauhale - τ Scorpii (tau Scorpii) is below the horizon from Greenwich, United Kingdom

Digitized Sky Survey image of Paikauhale

The image below is a photograph of Paikauhale from the Digitized Sky Survey 2 (DSS2 - see the credits section) taken in the red channel. The area of sky represented in the image is 0.5x0.5 degrees (30x30 arcmins). The proper motion of Paikauhale is -0.008 arcsec per year in Right Ascension and -0.022 arcsec per year in Declination and the associated displacement for the next 10000 years is represented with the red arrow.

Image of Paikauhale - τ Scorpii (tau Scorpii) star
DSS2 image of Paikauhale. The red arrow shows the motion of Paikauhale during the next 10000 years (-1.33 arcmin in Right Ascension and -3.67 arcmin in declination);

Distance of Paikauhale from the Sun and relative movement

Paikauhale is distant 429.51 light years from the Sun and it is moving far from the Sun at the speed of 2 kilometers per second.

131.75 pc
429.51 ly
2 km/s
-0.008 arcsec/year
-0.022 arcsec/year

Spectral properties of Paikauhale

Paikauhale belongs to spectral class B0 and has a luminosity class of V corresponding to a hypergiant star.

-2.78
B0V
14924K

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

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

Alternative designations of Paikauhale

Paikauhale
τ Scorpii
(tau Scorpii)
SAO184481
SAO184481