Location in Space

Radial Distance: based on a parallax of 0.08453" 0.00118 arcseconds, we calculate the distance as

        1. 38.59 lightyears ± 0.539 lightyear.

        2. 2,440,140 AU ± 34070 AU.

    Imagine standing on the north side of a plane in which Earth's equator lies with the north celestial pole directly overhead and look toward the First Point of Aries (now in Pisces just southeast of the Circlet). Then look eastward (to the left) by 190 degrees and a little less than half a degree and then look south (down) by a little less than one and a half degrees.

    in Parallax = -19.8± 0.9 kilometers per second (4.1768 AU per yr)

    Orbit size: the general orbit's semi-major axis (42.36 AU), the sum of the semi-major axes of the two stars' orbits, in AU (e=0.8781± 0.0025); varies between 5.16 AU and 79.56 AU.

    We refer the following to the plane of the sky, which we define as the plane comprising all straight lines that cross our line of sight through the barycenter of the system under study and that pass through that barycenter. One of those lines coincides with the system's line of nodes, the line where the system's orbital plane crosses the plane of the sky. As a matter of definition, astronomers refer to the node where the system's secondary crosses the plane of the sky moving at least partly away from Earth as the ascending node.

    Inclination; the angle between the plane of the stars' orbits and the plane of the sky. Imagine laying the orbit flat on our line of sight to the target star system. In that orientation the stars would appear to us to move from side to side on a straight line. We define that inclination as 90˚ and we measure the actual inclination of the system by an angle between 0˚ and 180˚. If the system has an inclination less than 90˚, the stars appear to revolve counterclockwise about our line of sight (which we imagine always passing through the system's barycenter) and we call the orbit prograde. If the system has an inclination greater than 90˚, the stars appear to revolve clockwise about our line of sight and we call the orbit retrograde.

i=150.38± 0.35 degrees.

    Position angle of the secondary's ascending node; the angle between the Ecliptic north vector and the line of nodes, measured counterclockwise from the line pointing Ecliptic north toward the system's ascending node.

    Longitude of Periastron (or Argument of Periastron); the angle between the line of nodes and the orbit's major axis (line of apsides), measured from 0˚ to 360˚ in the prograde direction (the direction of the secondary's motion) in the plane of the true orbit, from the secondary's ascending node to the secondary's periastron

    On a piece of stiff paper draw an ellipse of eccentricity equal to that of the orbit and draw an arrow indicating the direction of the star's motion on the orbit that the ellipse represents. Imagine standing on the Ecliptic plane with the Ecliptic north pole directly overhead. Look toward the target star and so hold the paper that the line of apsides coincides with your line of sight and the north vector of the orbit (defined by the right-hand rule: when your right thumb, extended in a thumbs-up gesture, points north, the fingers of that hand curl in the same way that the body moves on its orbit) points Ecliptic north. Designate the farther focus of the ellipse as the barycenter, the system's center of mass. In that orientation your ellipse has a position angle of +270 degrees, an inclination of 90 degrees, and a longitude of periastron of 90 degrees. Rotate the paper counterclockwise about the line of apsides by -57.12 degrees (clockwise if you get a negative number). Turn the paper -17.38 degrees in the prograde direction about the orbit's north vector (retrograde if you get a negative number). And then tilt the paper +60.38 degrees about the line of nodes, turning the paper by the right-hand rule if you get a positive number and by the left-hand rule if you get a negative number, the appropriate rule stating that when the thumb of the appropriate hand points from the orbit's ascending node to its descending node, the fingers curl in the direction you must turn the paper. With the paper in that position you have a picture of the orbit of the system's secondary star. The ellipse represents the orbit of the system's primary star if you change the position of the barycenter from one focus of the ellipse to the other.

        Harvard Class; F0-V (7200± 500 degrees Kelvin).

        Harvard Class; F0-V (7200± 500 degrees Kelvin).