Star profile
Alpha Microscopium
What is Alpha Microscopium
Alpha Microscopii is the brightest star of its little constellation —a modest distinction, since the Microscope is among the dimmest corners of the southern sky, drawn by Lacaille in the eighteenth century to honour the instruments of Enlightenment science. It is a yellow type-G giant some 378 light-years away, an aged and far more voluminous echo of our Sun.
Where it is and when to see it
Alpha Microscopium 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 Alpha Microscopium
- Constellation
- Microscopium
- Apparent magnitude
- 4.89
- Distance
- 378.4 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 312.492° · Dec -33.780°
- Catalogue
- HIP 102831 · HD 198232
A symbolic commemorative gift: neither the signature nor the chosen name implies ownership of the star or recognition by the IAU.
Other stars in Microscopium
Microscopium has 23 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- Gamma Microscopium4.67
- Epsilon Microscopium4.71
- Theta 1 Microscopium4.80
- Iota Microscopium5.11
- Nu Microscopium5.12
- HIP 1041745.20
- HIP 1047385.25
- Zeta Microscopium5.32