Star Stars · In Boötes
Muphrid
Muphrid, η Boötis, is a yellow subgiant in Boötes: the 111th brightest star in the night sky.
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- Constellation
- Boötes
- Designation
- η Boötis
- Apparent magnitude
- 2.68 · 111th brightest star in the night sky
- Spectral class
- G0IV
- Distance
- 37.2 light-years
- Highest at midnight
- mid April
- Position (J2000)
- RA 13h 55m · Dec +18° 24′
A yellow subgiant, around 6,000 K, like the Sun. About 34× brighter than the faintest star the eye can see. Gives off about 9 times the Sun's visible light. The light you are seeing left in 1989.
When to see it
On the night of Sun 18 Apr 2027, when it is highest around midnight, on each city’s own clock:
| From | Rises | Highest | Sets |
|---|---|---|---|
| London GMT+1 | 17:32 | 01:08 · 57° | 08:45 |
| New York EDT | 17:58 | 01:03 · 68° | 08:08 |
| Singapore GMT+8 | 19:13 | 01:14 · 73° | 07:15 |
| Sydney GMT+10 | 18:57 | 00:05 · 38° | 05:13 |
Common questions
- Can I see it from 50° north?
- Yes. It rises and sets, and at its highest it stands 58° up in the south.
- Can I see it from 35° south?
- Yes. It rises and sets, and at its highest it stands 37° up in the north.
- When is the best time of year to see it?
- Around mid April, when it stands opposite the Sun and is highest at midnight. It comes round about two hours earlier each month, so by mid July it is highest in the early evening, and in mid January not until the hours before dawn.
- How far away is it, and how bright?
- It is 37.2 light-years away, and shines at magnitude 2.68 in our sky. From that far, the Sun would be a star of magnitude 5.1: one you would need a dark country sky to see at all.
- Naked eye, binoculars or telescope?
- The naked eye, even from a city: at magnitude 2.68 it is brighter than the faintest stars a city sky still shows, about magnitude 4.5.
Look for
Start from Arcturus: Muphrid is 5.0° west of it, three fingers at arm’s length.
Look for
From 50° north it climbs to 58°; from 35° north it climbs to 73°; from the equator it climbs to 72°; from 35° south it climbs to 37°.
Science
Muphrid’s surface is about 6,000 K, some 200 K hotter than the Sun’s 5,772 K, so its light is strongest at about 480 nm, where the Sun’s is strongest at 500 nm. Moved to 33 light-years, the distance astronomers compare stars at, it would shine at magnitude 2.4, about as bright as Ankaa looks to us.
Did you know
Against Arcturus, the brighter star the hop starts from: Arcturus looks 12 times as bright as Muphrid in our sky; Arcturus is 37 light-years away and Muphrid 37 light-years, so side by side Arcturus would give off 12 times as much light as Muphrid.
Science
Muphrid is the 12th nearest to us of the 156 stars on these pages with a measured distance. Its nearest neighbour among them in space is Arcturus, about 3 light-years from it; on our sky the two are 5.0° apart.
Look for
The Sun passes 28° south of Muphrid around mid October, when it is highest at noon, in daylight: the weeks either side are its worst time of year. From 50° north it is above the horizon for about 15 hours a day, from 35° north about 14 and from 35° south about 10. It is 73° from the plane of the Milky Way, well away from the band.