hip-101427

Its story

Near the southern celestial pole, in the discreet constellation Octans, shines a yellow G-type star, a spectral cousin of the Sun. Its austral position makes it almost the centre of the southern sky's rotation, a faint compass for sailors of old. Its light set out around 522 years ago, when Castilian astronomers were publishing revised Alfonsine tables and the first caravels were venturing south of Madeira.