Star profile
Alnair
Alpha Grus · Grus
Hot blue starWhat is Alnair
Alnair, «the bright one» in Arabic, quietly presides over the southern constellation of Grus, the Crane. It is a blue sun 101 light-years away, young and vigorous, many times hotter than our own. When this light set out, the first recorded jazz note had not yet been played in America; now it reaches eyes that have already seen Saturn's rings from within.
Where it is and when to see it
Alnair 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.
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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 Alnair
- Constellation
- Grus
- Apparent magnitude
- 1.73
- Distance
- 101.0 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 332.058° · Dec -46.961°
- Catalogue
- HIP 109268 · HD 209952
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.
- TiakiBeta Grus2.07
- AldhanabGamma Grus3.00
- Epsilon Grus3.49
- Iota Grus3.88
- Delta 1 Grus3.97
- Zeta Grus4.11
- Delta 2 Grus4.12
- Theta Grus4.28