a Puppis (HIP 38414)

a Puppis is an orange bright giant star in the constellation Puppis. At 349 light years away, it is the 364th brightest star in the Earth's sky, where it shines at an apparent visual magnitude of 3.71. It is moving through the Galaxy at a speed of 26.3 km/s relative to the Sun. Its projected Galactic orbit carries it between 20,900 and 24,300 light years from the center of the Galaxy. It came closest to the Sun 3.8 million years ago when it had brightened to magnitude 0.82 from a distance of 92 light years.

Sky position: RA 7h 52.2m, Dec -40° 34.8'

Common designations: a Puppis, HIP 38414, HD 64440

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Stars of the Northern Hemisphere
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Brightest stars in Puppis:
(list all)

1

|    2.21

)   Naos

2

|    2.71

)   Pi Puppis

3

|    2.83

)   Rho Puppis

4

|    2.94

)   Tau Puppis

5

|    3.17

)   Nu Puppis

6

|    3.25

)   Sigma Puppis

7

|    3.34

)   Azmidiske

8

|    3.62

)   c Puppis

9

|    3.71

)   a Puppis

10

|    3.80

)   Markeb

11

|    3.94

)   3 Puppis

12

|    4.10

)   HR 3055

13

|    4.20

)   11 Puppis

14

|    4.22

)   J Puppis

15

|    4.40

)   Omicron Puppis

16

|    4.40

)   16 Puppis

17

|    4.42

)   L2 Puppis

Location of a Puppis circled
Map detail from Stars of the Northern Hemisphere
Hover over other bright stars to identify or click to jump.

Galactic Orbit of a Puppis
(compared to the Sun)

Eccentricity: 7.4% vs. 16.0%

Angle φ : 164.6° vs. 26.0°

Semi-major axis : 6,937 pc vs. 8,686 pc

Semi-minor axis: 6,918 pc vs. 8,574 pc

Focus-to-center: 512 pc vs. 1,388 pc

Semilatus rectum : 6,899 pc vs. 8,464 pc

Perigalacticon: 6,425 pc vs. 7,297 pc

Apogalacticon: 7,449 pc vs. 10,074 pc
 
Some Tabulated XHIP Data for a Puppis
(see also: SIMBAD)

Astrometry
 2007A&A...474..653V
  Position Proper Motion
Right Ascension: 118.05435646° ±0.63 mas -11.40 ±0.80 mas/yr.
Declination: -40.57579879° ±0.74 mas 7.60 ±0.80 mas/yr.
     
Galactic Longitude: 255.34720773° -12.29 mas/yr.
Galactic Latitude: -6.85851945° -6.05 mas/yr.

Parallax: 9.25 ± 0.83 mas

Spectrography

Spectral Type: K1/2 II + A 1978MSS...C02....0H.

Radial Velocity: 25.40 ±7.40 km/s [D rating] 2007AN....328..889K.
This star is a spectroscopic binary with an unsolved orbit.

Iron Abundance [Fe/H]: n/a
 


Photometry
 
band magnitude Abs. Mag.
U
B 4.72 -0.43
V 3.71 -1.44
R
I 2.79 -2.36
J 1.91 -3.24
H 1.44 -3.71
K 1.29 -3.86

  B-V: +1.01       V-I: +0.92

Derivations

Heliocentric distance: 107.07 pc (9.0% margin of error)

Galactocentric distance: 7,428 pc

Transverse velocity: 7.0 km/s

3D heliocentric position and motion:

toward:   

Galactic center Galactic rotation North Galactic Pole
Position ( X, Y, Z) -26.9 pc -102.8 pc -12.8 pc
Velocity (U, V, W) -12.3 km/s -22.5 km/s -6.1 km/s

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