Star profile
Zeta Horologium
What is Zeta Horologium
Zeta Horologii shines with a yellow-white light in the Clock, a small southern constellation traced by Lacaille in the eighteenth century as a tribute to the scientific instruments of his time. It is an F-type star 160 light-years away, slightly hotter than the Sun, nearly anonymous to the unaided eye yet essential for anyone exploring this corner of the southern sky. Its existence is a reminder that the firmament, far from being fixed by ancient myth, remains a map each generation rewrites with its own tools.
Where it is and when to see it
Zeta Horologium lies in the southern celestial hemisphere. It is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky. Its best month of the year is September: 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 Zeta Horologium
- Constellation
- Horologium
- Apparent magnitude
- 5.21
- Distance
- 160.1 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 40.165° · Dec -54.550°
- Catalogue
- HIP 12484 · HD 16920
A symbolic commemorative gift: neither the signature nor the chosen name implies ownership of the star or recognition by the IAU.
Other stars in Horologium
Horologium has 18 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- Alpha Horologium3.85
- Delta Horologium4.93
- Beta Horologium4.98
- Mu Horologium5.12
- Nu Horologium5.25
- Eta Horologium5.30
- HIP 201615.33
- Lambda Horologium5.36