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public  Greenwich, UK Greenwich, UK  ⓘ
TimezoneEurope/London
Sunrise: 7:12 
Transit: 12:47 
Sunset: 18:22
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What's Visible Now • Tonight Timeline
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All Constellations » Orion » 

τ Orionis (tau Orionis)

Below the horizon.  Rise: 23:45 | Tran: 5:13 | Set: 10:37
Alt: -37.46°   Az: 316.26°   Direction: North-West

τ Orionis is a multiple giant star of spectral class B5 in the constellation of Orion.

τ Orionis visual magnitude is 3.6. Because of its moderate brightness, τ Orionis 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 Orionis (tau Orionis) star
DSS2 image of τ Orionis. The red arrow shows the motion of τ Orionis during the next 10000 years (-2.50 arcmin in Right Ascension and -1.33 arcmin in declination);

Celestial Coordinates

Apparent

05h 18m 48s
-06° 49’ 09”
09h 45m 46s
15h 04m 35s

J2000

05h 17m 36s
-06° 50’ 39”

Galactic Coordinates

208.28°
-23.96°

Finder Chart

Finder chart τ Orionis (tau Orionis) star
Simplified finder chart for τ Orionis (tau Orionis).

Magnitude, Color, Spectral Class

3.6
Giant

-2.55
B5III
11744K

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

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

Star System Properties

τ Orionis 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 τ Orionis double sysyem:

3.6
10.8
7.2
36 arcsec

Distance, Radial Speed, Proper Motion

τ Orionis is distant 554.42 light years from the Sun and it is moving far from the Sun at the speed of 20 kilometers per second.

170.07
554.42
20 km/s
-0.015 arcsec/y
-0.008"/y

Alternative Designations

τ Orionis
(tau Orionis)
SAO131952
SAO131952

Visibility from Your Location

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

Azimuth: 96.8°
Max altitude: 31.7°
Azimuth: 263.2°