Star profile

Lambda Grus

Cool red star

3D likeness based on its real data · class M · ~3,200 K

What is Lambda Grus

Lambda Gruis burns within the Crane as a cool, vastly extended M-type red giant some 242 light-years away. In its thin atmosphere, molecules form that would never survive the Sun’s heat; the light escaping from there reaches Earth tinted a deep, ember-like red. Set within a relatively modern southern constellation, charted by Dutch navigators at the close of the sixteenth century, it offers southern skies one of those coppery points that break the dominant blue-white grain of the night.

Where it is and when to see it

Lambda Grus lies in the southern 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.

Find it on the sky map

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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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Write my signature

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 Lambda Grus

Constellation: Grus
Apparent magnitude: 4.47
Distance: 242.2 light years
Coordinates (J2000): RA 331.529° · Dec -39.543°
Catalogue: HIP 109111 · HD 209688

A symbolic commemorative gift: neither the signature nor the chosen name implies ownership of the star or recognition by the IAU.

Other stars in Grus

Grus has 39 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.

See all 39 stars in Grus