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Azmidi

Asmidiske, Azmidiske, Xi Puppis, 7 Puppis

Proper NamesAzmidi, Azmidiske
Bayer DesignationXi Puppis
Flamsteed Number7 Puppis
HR (BSC)3045
HD63700
ConstellationPuppis
Right Ascension7h 49m 18s
Declination-24° 51' 35"
Distancec.1,200 light years
c.400 parsecs
MagnitudeApparent: +3.3
Absolute: -4.5
Spectral ClassG6Iab yellow Supergiant
Optimum VisibilityJanuary / February
NotesAzmidi is a triple system with the primary star being a yellow supergiant more than a hundred times the Sun's diameter. Two dwarfs orbit around this huge and brilliant star, one in a very close orbit and the other following a path that takes it some 2,000 AU from the central supergiant.

A multiple star in the northern parts of Puppis, lying within the band of the Milky Way in the same field of the sky as the open cluster M93. The name of this star derives from an accumulation of errors, and comes originally from the misapplication of the name Aspidiske (a name that actually belongs to Iota Carinae in neighbouring Carina). The confusion was compunded when the name was misspelt as Asmidiske or Azmidiske, from which the modern name Azmidi derives. (Formally, 'Azmidi' is the name of an individual star within the multiple system: the supergiant that forms the heart of the system.)

That supergiant is a yellow star some 120 times the diameter of the Sun, falling some 1,200 light years from the Solar System. It is a spectroscopic binary, with a small companion star in a close orbit, probably no more than about 2 AU from the primary star. About a thousand times farther from the supergiant, another companion orbits, a dwarf star that circles the primary at a distance of some 2,000 AU.

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