Lacaille 8760 [SEP] constellation
Lacaille 8760
Lacaille 8760 (AX Microscopii) is a red dwarf star in the constellation Microscopium. Although it is generally too faint to be seen without a telescope, it is one of the nearest stars to the Sun at about 12.9 light-years' distance. At an apparent magnitude of +6.7, it may only be visible to the unaided eye under exceptionally good viewing conditions, under dark skies. It was originally listed in a 1763 catalog that was published posthumously by the French Abbé Nicolas Louis de Lacaille. He observed
it in the southern sky while working from an observatory at the Cape of Good Hope.
In the past Lacaille 8760 has been classified anywhere from spectral class K7 down to M2. In 1979 the Irish astronomer Patrick Byrne discovered that it is a flare star, and it was given the variable star designation AX Microscopii. As a flare star it is relatively quiet, only erupting on average less than once per day.
Lacaille 8760 orbits around the galaxy with a relatively high ellipticity of 0.23. Its closest approach to the