Lacaille 9352

Lacaille 9352 is located about 10.7 light-years (ly) from our Sun, Sol, in the southwestern edge (23:05:42.04-35:51:11.06, ICRS 2000.0) of Constellation Piscis Australis (or Austrinus), the Southern Fish, near Constellation Grus, the Crane -- southeast of Beta Piscis Australis/Austrini and southwest of Gamma and Delta Piscis Australis/Austrini. It was listed by the Abbé [Abbot] Nicholas Louis de La Caille (1713-1762), who had the great honor of naming 15 of the 88 constellations by becoming the first astronomer to systematically observe the entire night sky, in his posthumously published 1763 catalogue of 9,766 stars that was compiled from 1750 to 1754 by studying the stars of the southern hemisphere at the Cape of Good Hope, the southernmost point of Africa, with just an half-inch (8x) refractor. The star is too faint to be seen with the naked eye.(Solstation)

Sources:

• http://www.solstation.com/stars/lac9352.htm

Lacaille 8760

Also known as AX Microscopii, Lacaille 8760 is located about 12.9 light-years (ly) from our Sun, Sol, in the south central part (21:17:15.3-38:52:2.5, ICRS 2000.0) of Constellation Microscopium, the Microscope -- south of Alpha Microscopii, southwest of Gamma Microscopii, northwest of Theta1 Microscopii, and north of Zeta and Alpha Indi (The Persian). It was listed by the Abbé [Abbot] Nicholas Louis de La Caille (1713-1762), who had the great honor of naming 15 of the 88 constellations by becoming the first astronomer to systematically observe the entire night sky, in his posthumously published 1763 catalogue of 9,766 stars that was compiled from 1750 to 1754 by studying the stars of the southern hemisphere at the Cape of Good Hope, the southernmost point of Africa, with just an half-inch (8x) refractor. Although Lacaille 8760 is the brightest red (more orange-red to some astronomers) dwarf star in Earth's night sky, the star is too faint to be seen with the naked eye by most Humans (Kenneth Croswell, 2002).

This spectral and luminosity type of this cool and dim, main sequence dwarf has been classed as orange as K7 (SIMBAD) and red as M2 Ve (Hawley et al, 1996). Lacaille 8760 may have around 60 percent of Sol's mass (RECONS), about 66 to 72 percent of its diameter ((Pasinetti-Fracassini et al, 2001; Johnson and Wright, 1983, page 699; and Claude H. Lacy, 1977, page 482), and 2.8 to 3.5 percent of its luminosity, and is at least half as abundant in elements heavier than hydrogen ("metallicity") as Sol. A relatively mild flare star (that erupts less than once per day), Lacaille 8760 has been given the Variable Star designation AX Microscopii (B.R. Pettersen; P.B. Byrne; and Woolley et al, 1970). Given its relatively sedate flare rate and the high eccentricity (e= 0.20) and inclination (i= 0.06) of its orbit around the galactic center (Allen and Herrera, 1998; P.B. Byrne; and Woolley et al, 1970), the star appears to be older than Sol's 4.6 billion years.(Solstation)

Sources:

• http://www.solstation.com/stars/lac8760.htm

Luyten 789-6

The system known as Luyten 789-6 is a nearby triple star system (trinary), also known as EZ Aquarii, consisting of three red dwarfs. It lies 11.08 light-years (3.4 pc) away in the constellation Aquarius. The main component is also a spectroscopic binary. The system's nearest neighbour is Lacaille 9352 at a distance of 4.21 light-years (1.29 pc).

• Visual magnitude 12.66 (A) 13.67 (B)
• Absolute magnitude 14.68 (combined)
• Spectral type M5V
• Distance 11.26 light-years (3.45 pc)
• Radial velocity -59.9 km/s
• Position R.A. 22h 38m 33.4s, Dec. -15° 18' 07"

Sources:

• http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/L/Luyten_789-6.html

Epsilon Indi

This star system is located about 11.8 light-years (ly) away from our Sun at the northwestern edge (22:03:21.66-56:47:09.51, ICRS 2000.0) of Constellation Indus, the Indian -- southeast of Delta Indi and northwest of Alpha Tucanae. The fifth brightest star in Indus, this star is the title member of the Epsilon Indi stellar moving group. Although smaller and dimmer than the Sun, it is clearly visible with the naked eye. Epsilon Indi has such a high proper motion that, within a few thousand years, it will have moved out of Constellation Indus constellation and into neighboring Constellation Tucana, the Toucan. (Solstation) It moves a full lunar diameter in less than 400 years.(ESO)

Epsilon Indi is a orange-red main sequence dwarf star of spectral and luminosity type K4-5 Ve. The star has about 77 percent of Sol's mass (RECONS), 76 percent of its diameter (Johnson and Wright, 1983, page 701), and about 14.7 percent of its luminosity. It appears to be about 59 to 110 percent as enriched as Sol with elements heavier than hydrogen ("metallicity"), based on its abundance of iron.(Solstation)

On January 13, 2003, astronomers announced the discovery of a methane brown dwarf companion to this nearby star In August 2003, the same team (as well as another team) of astronomers discovered that the brown dwarf had its own brown dwarf companion. As of late 2003, the two substellar objects are the closest known brown dwarfs to the Solar System.(Solstation) Epsilon Indi B has a mass just 45 times that of Jupiter, the largest planet in the Solar System, and a surface temperature of only 1000 ˇC. It belongs to the so-called 'T dwarf' category of objects which straddle the domain between stars and giant planets.(ESO)

Sources:

• http://www.solstation.com/stars/eps-indi.htm
• http://www.eso.org/outreach/press-rel/pr-2003/pr-01-03.html