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public  Greenwich, UK Greenwich, UK  ⓘ
TimezoneEurope/London
Sunrise: 5:07 
Transit: 12:56 
Sunset: 20:45
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All Constellations » Orion » 

Rigel - β Orionis (beta Orionis)

Above the horizon.  Rise: 9:20 | Tran: 14:37 | Set: 19:54
Alt: 7.12°   Az: 247.23°   Direction: West-South-West

Rigel, also designated as β Orionis (beta Orionis), is a variable and multiple supergiant star of spectral class B8 in the constellation of Orion.

Rigel visual magnitude is 0.12, making it the 7th brightest star in the sky. Because of its brightness, Rigel 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 Rigel - β Orionis (beta Orionis) star
DSS2 image of Rigel. The red arrow shows the motion of Rigel during the next 100000 years (0.00 arcmin in Right Ascension and -1.67 arcmin in declination);

Celestial Coordinates

Apparent

05h 15m 45s
-08° 10’ 27”
04h 30m 16s
09h 46m 02s

J2000

05h 14m 32s
-08° 12’ 06”

Galactic Coordinates

209.24°
-25.25°

Finder Chart

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Finder chart for Rigel - β Orionis (beta Orionis).

Magnitude, Color, Spectral Class

0.12
Supergiant

-6.75
B8I
10516K

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

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

Star System Properties

Rigel 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 Rigel double sysyem:

0.12
6.62
6.5
9.5 arcsec

Distance, Radial Speed, Proper Motion

Rigel is distant 772.51 light years from the Sun and it is moving far from the Sun at the speed of 21 kilometers per second.

236.97
772.51
21 km/s
-0.001"/y

Alternative Designations

Rigel
β Orionis
(beta Orionis)
SAO131907
SAO131907

Visibility from Your Location

Today's Rigel - β Orionis (beta Orionis) rise, transit and set times from Greenwich, UK are the following (all times relative to the local timezone Europe/London):

Azimuth: 98.2°
Max altitude: 30.3°
Azimuth: 261.8°