CW Octantis

CW Octantis, also known as HD 148542, is a solitary, white hued variable star located in the southern circumpolar constellation Octans. It has an apparent magnitude of 6.03, allowing it to be faintly visible to the naked eye. Parallax measurements from Gaia DR3 place the object at a distance of 629 light years. It appears to be receding from the Solar System with a heliocentric radial velocity of $$.

CW Octantis has a stellar classification of A3 IV, indicating that it is an evolved A-type star heading towards the red giant branch. Zorec and Royer (2012) model it as a dwarf star that has just reached the end of its main sequence lifetime. It has 2.98 times the mass of the Sun and 4.6 times its radius. It radiates 111 times the luminosity of the Sun from its photosphere at an effective temperature of $$. CW Octantis is estimated to be 188 million years old.

This object is classified as a Alpha2 Canum Venaticorum variable. Most stars of this class have chemical peculiarities in their spectra, but CW Octantis seems to be ordinary. Renson and Manfroid (2009) consider its peculiarity status to be doubtful. Nevertheless, CW Octantis fluctuates between 6.05 and 6.07 in the Hipparcos passband within 2.63 days. It takes 2.8 days to complete a full a rotation, which corresponds to a projected rotational velocity of $$.