
Star profile
Theta Octans
What is Theta Octans
Theta Octantis is an orange giant 217 light-years away, in the constellation surrounding the south celestial pole — a region of sky no European navigator saw before the sixteenth century. There is no bright southern pole star here: only a mosaic of faint lights, and among them Theta Octantis traces a warm point near the very axis around which the whole firmament appears to turn.
Where it is and when to see it
Theta Octans 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.
It opens in your browser. Free, no account, nothing to install.
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
If you don't have an account yet, we'll ask for an email to confirm it's you: we send you a link and that's it, no password.
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 Theta Octans
- Constellation
- Octans
- Apparent magnitude
- 4.78
- Distance
- 217.2 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 0.399° · Dec -77.066°
- Catalogue
- HIP 122 · HD 224889
A symbolic commemorative gift: neither the signature nor the chosen name implies ownership of the star or recognition by the IAU.
Other stars in Octans
Octans has 35 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- Nu Octans3.73
- Beta Octans4.13
- Delta Octans4.31
- Epsilon Octans5.09
- Gamma 1 Octans5.10
- Alpha Octans5.13
- Lambda Octans5.27
- Gamma 3 Octans5.29