Star profile
Kappa Grus
What is Kappa Grus
Kappa Gruis accompanies the long, slender neck of the Crane, one of the birds drawn into the southern sky by the Dutch explorers of the late sixteenth century. At 364 light-years, it is an orange K-type giant whose warm light blends with the set of stars sketching the bird's elegant body. The constellation, with its unmistakable silhouette, recalls the oceanic voyages when the southern sky was still a cartographic territory to invent.
Where it is and when to see it
Kappa 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.
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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 Grus
- Constellation
- Grus
- Apparent magnitude
- 5.37
- Distance
- 364.1 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 346.165° · Dec -53.965°
- Catalogue
- HIP 113957 · HD 217902
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.
- AlnairAlpha Grus1.73
- TiakiBeta Grus2.07
- AldhanabGamma Grus3.00
- Mu 2 Grus5.11
- Xi Grus5.29
- HIP 1101095.36
- HIP 1128325.43
- HIP 1082945.45