Star profile
Kappa Hydrus
What is Kappa Hydrus
Kappa Hydri shines quietly in the most austral cycle of the heavens, within the small Male Water Snake that only appears at southern latitudes. It is an orange K-type giant 317 light-years away, an aged and dilated star whose tepid light blends with the diffuse dust of the southern Milky Way. Its journey to our eyes began decades after Cervantes had already written Don Quixote, and crosses a sky European classicism never knew until the great nautical voyages of the sixteenth century.
Where it is and when to see it
Kappa Hydrus 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 Kappa Hydrus
- Constellation
- Hydrus
- Apparent magnitude
- 5.99
- Distance
- 317.3 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 35.718° · Dec -73.646°
- Catalogue
- HIP 11095 · HD 15248
A symbolic commemorative gift: neither the signature nor the chosen name implies ownership of the star or recognition by the IAU.
Other stars in Hydrus
Hydrus has 20 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- Beta Hydrus2.82
- Alpha Hydrus2.86
- Gamma Hydrus3.26
- HIP 145215.67
- HIP 79215.70
- HIP 66315.92
- HIP 159685.96
- HIP 17065.96