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public  Greenwich, UK Greenwich, UK  ⓘ
TimezoneEurope/London
Sunrise: 7:12 
Transit: 12:14 
Sunset: 17:16
wb_twilight   (Astronomical Twilight)  
What's Visible Now • Tonight Timeline
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All Constellations » Canis Major » 

τ Canis Majoris (tau Canis Majoris)

Above the horizon.  Rise: 17:55 | Tran: 21:31 | Set: 1:10
Alt: 5.89°   Az: 144.28°   Direction: South-East

τ Canis Majoris is a variable and multiple supergiant star of spectral class O9 in the constellation of Canis Major.

τ Canis Majoris visual magnitude is 4.4. Because of its moderate brightness, τ Canis Majoris 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 τ Canis Majoris (tau Canis Majoris) star
DSS2 image of τ Canis Majoris. The red arrow shows the motion of τ Canis Majoris during the next 10000 years (-1.50 arcmin in Right Ascension and 1.67 arcmin in declination);

Celestial Coordinates

Apparent

07h 19m 44s
-25° 00’ 05”
21h 20m 35s
04h 40m 20s

J2000

07h 18m 42s
-24° 57’ 15”

Galactic Coordinates

238.18°
-5.54°

Finder Chart

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Finder chart for τ Canis Majoris (tau Canis Majoris).

Magnitude, Color, Spectral Class

4.4
Supergiant

-5.56
O9I
12489K

The red dot in the diagram below shows where τ Canis Majoris is situated in the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram.

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

Distance, Radial Speed, Proper Motion

τ Canis Majoris is distant 3,196.08 light years from the Sun and it is moving far from the Sun at the speed of 40 kilometers per second.

980.39
3,196.08
40 km/s
-0.009 arcsec/y
0.01"/y

Alternative Designations

τ Canis Majoris
(tau Canis Majoris)
30 Canis Majoris
SAO173446
SAO173446

Visibility from Your Location

Today's τ Canis Majoris (tau Canis Majoris) rise, transit and set times from Greenwich, UK are the following (all times relative to the local timezone Europe/London):

Azimuth: 115.0°
Max altitude: 13.5°
Azimuth: 245.0°