binary star
A binary star is a system of two stars that are gravitationally bound to and in orbit around each other. Binary stars in the night sky that are seen as a single object to the naked eye are often resolved using a telescope as separate stars, in wh ...
system in the equatorial
constellation
A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms Asterism (astronomy), a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object.
The origins of the e ...
mas
Mas, Más or MAS may refer to:
Film and TV
* Más y Menos, fictional superhero characters, from the Teen Titans animated television series
* Más (Breaking Bad), "Más" (''Breaking Bad''), a season three episode of ''Breaking Bad''
Songs
* Más ( ...
, indicating a distance of around 280
light year
A light-year, alternatively spelled light year, is a large unit of length used to express astronomical distances and is equivalent to about 9.46 trillion kilometers (), or 5.88 trillion miles ().One trillion here is taken to be 1012 ...
s.
The two components orbit each other with a period of 77.55 years and a high eccentricity of 0.691. The orbital plane is inclined by 145.1° to the line of sight from the Earth. With a visual magnitude of 5.6, the brighter component A is an A-type main sequence star with a
stellar classification
In astronomy, stellar classification is the classification of stars based on their stellar spectrum, spectral characteristics. Electromagnetic radiation from the star is analyzed by splitting it with a Prism (optics), prism or diffraction grati ...
of A1 V. The fainter companion B has a classification of A4 V with a magnitude of 6.0. Their combined spectral matches a classification of A0/1 V and their angular separation 0,4 arcseconds, so for the observation a telescope with at least 30 centimetres aperture is require.
There is a magnitude 12.28 companion star C at an
angular separation
Angular distance \theta (also known as angular separation, apparent distance, or apparent separation) is the angle between the two sightlines, or between two point objects as viewed from an observer.
Angular distance appears in mathematics (in pa ...
of 36.9 arc seconds along a position angle of 333°, as of 2000. This separation has increased from 30.0 arc seconds in 1834. The
proper motion
Proper motion is the astrometric measure of the observed changes in the apparent places of stars or other celestial objects in the sky, as seen from the center of mass of the Solar System, compared to the abstract background of the more dista ...
of this star differs from the Gamma Sextantis AB system, having components ''μα'' = −29 mas/yr and ''μδ'' = +5 mas/yr.