Iota Capricorni
Iota Capricorni is a solitary, yellow-hued star in the southern constellation of Capricornus. It name is a Bayer designation that is Latinized from ι Capricorni, and abbreviated Iota Cap or ι Cap. This star can be seen with the naked eye, having an apparent visual magnitude of +4.3. It is positioned near the ecliptic and thus is subject to lunar occultation.
Based upon an annual parallax shift of as seen from the Earth, the star is located about from the Sun. At that distance, the visual magnitude of the star is diminished by an extinction factor of 0.08 due to interstellar dust. It is drifting further away with a line of sight velocity of +12 km/s.
Chinese name
In Chinese, 十二國, meaning Twelve States, refers to an asterism which represents twelve ancient states in the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period, consisting of ι Capricorni, φ Capricorni, 38 Capricorni, 35 Capricorni, 36 Capricorni, χ Capricorni, θ Capricorni, 30 Capricorni, 33 Capricorni, ζ Capricorni, 19 Capricorni, 26 Capricorni, 27 Capricorni, 20 Capricorni, η Capricorni and 21 Capricorni. Consequently, the Chinese name for ι Capricorni itself is 代一, meaning that this star represents the state Dai.Properties
This is an evolved G-type giant star with a stellar classification of G8 III. It is classified as a BY Draconis type variable star. This is a chromospherically-active star with a longitudinal magnetic field strength of and an X-ray luminosity of. The activity and photometric variation of the star allow an estimate of its rotation period as 68 days.Iota Capricorni has an estimated 2.9 times the mass of the Sun and nearly 11 times the Solar radius. It is 390 million years old and is radiating 83 times the solar luminosity from its chromosphere at an effective temperature of 5,200 K.
On 31 January 2034, it will be occulted by Venus over a small part of Siberia, Mongolia and China.