Star profile
Tau Capricorni
Hot blue starWhat is Tau Capricorni
Tau Capricorni is a blue-white B-type star more than eleven hundred light-years away, in the ancient constellation of the Sea-Goat. Its naked-eye light is faint —magnitude 5.24— yet it actually belongs to a sun tens of times more luminous than ours: distance does all the work of dimming. Every photon caught tonight left the star before the first Gothic cathedral was raised.
Where it is and when to see it
Tau Capricorni lies in the southern celestial hemisphere. It is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky. Its best month of the year is July: 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 Tau Capricorni
- Constellation
- Capricornus
- Apparent magnitude
- 5.24
- Distance
- 1136.6 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 309.818° · Dec -14.955°
- Catalogue
- HIP 101923 · HD 196662
A symbolic commemorative gift: neither the signature nor the chosen name implies ownership of the star or recognition by the IAU.
Other stars in Capricornus
Capricornus has 48 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- Deneb AlgediDelta Capricorni2.85
- DabihBeta Capricorni3.05
- AlgediAlpha 2 Capricorni3.58
- Upsilon Capricorni5.15
- 42 Capricorni5.16
- Phi Capricorni5.17
- 41 Capricorni5.24
- Sigma Capricorni5.28