Star profile
Rotanev
Beta Delphinus · Delphinus
What is Rotanev
Rotanev hides a small astronomical joke: read backwards, the name spells 'Venator', the Latinised surname of the Italian astronomer Niccolò Cacciatore, who quietly christened it in 1814 without anyone in his time noticing the trick. It shines in Delphinus, one of the tiniest and most ancient constellations in the sky, as a yellow-white F-type light at 101 light-years away. Its glow has crossed space throughout the entire twentieth century to reach this very night.
Where it is and when to see it
Rotanev lies in the northern celestial hemisphere. It is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky. Its best month of the year is August: the Sun sits at the opposite point of the sky and the star culminates around midnight. How high it climbs above the horizon depends on the latitude you watch from.
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The signature wall
Stelvia's sky works like a signature wall: anyone can leave their name and a message on a real star, and that signature goes up on the map for everyone to read. Signing is free.
A signature without a lock can be replaced by someone else's. The lock makes the signature permanent and lets you choose a symbolic name for the star, always shown next to the star's catalogue identifier. How the lock works
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A public signature from a real person. The chosen name is a symbolic denomination within Stelvia, with no official standing or IAU recognition: the sky is not for sale and belongs to no one.
Astronomical data for Rotanev
- Constellation
- Delphinus
- Apparent magnitude
- 3.64
- Distance
- 100.9 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 309.387° · Dec 14.595°
- Catalogue
- HIP 101769 · HD 196524
A symbolic commemorative gift: neither the signature nor the chosen name implies ownership of the star or recognition by the IAU.
Other stars in Delphinus
Delphinus has 18 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- SualocinAlpha Delphinus3.77
- AldulfinEpsilon Delphinus4.03
- Gamma 2 Delphinus4.27
- Delta Delphinus4.43
- Zeta Delphinus4.64
- Kappa Delphinus5.07
- Gamma 1 Delphinus5.15
- 17 Delphinus5.19