Star profile
Sigma Persei
What is Sigma Persei
Sigma Persei is an orange giant glowing on the flank of the hero Perseus, some three hundred and sixty light-years away from us. Its warm tone contrasts with the brilliant white and bluish stars that dominate the rest of the constellation, an elegant reminder that the sky is built from very different stellar generations. The light we now see set out when the Inquisition was still interrogating Galileo in Rome and modern astronomy was barely emerging from the newly invented telescope.
Where it is and when to see it
Sigma Persei lies in the northern celestial hemisphere. It is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky. Its best month of the year is November: 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 Sigma Persei
- Constellation
- Perseus
- Apparent magnitude
- 4.36
- Distance
- 359.6 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 52.644° · Dec 47.995°
- Catalogue
- HIP 16335 · HD 21552
A symbolic commemorative gift: neither the signature nor the chosen name implies ownership of the star or recognition by the IAU.
Other stars in Perseus
Perseus has 99 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- MirfakAlpha Persei1.79
- AlgolBeta Persei2.09
- Zeta Persei2.84
- Lambda Persei4.25
- 58 Persei4.25
- Psi Persei4.32
- 17 Persei4.56
- HIP 200704.60