Star profile
Electra
17 Tauri · Taurus
Hot blue starWhat is Electra
Electra is one of the Seven Pleiades, the daughters of the Titan Atlas placed by the Greeks into Taurus. Legend says she veiled her face in mourning after the fall of Troy, dimming her brightness. She is a hot blue star about 405 light-years away — the light you see tonight set out around 1621, just as the Mayflower had finished crossing the Atlantic.
Where it is and when to see it
Electra 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 Electra
- Constellation
- Taurus
- Apparent magnitude
- 3.72
- Distance
- 404.7 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 56.219° · Dec 24.113°
- Catalogue
- HIP 17499 · HD 23302
A symbolic commemorative gift: neither the signature nor the chosen name implies ownership of the star or recognition by the IAU.
Other stars in Taurus
Taurus has 144 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- AldebaranAlpha Tauri0.87
- ElnathBeta Tauri1.65
- AlcyoneEta Tauri2.85
- Omicron Tauri3.61
- Atlas3.62
- Prima HyadumGamma Tauri3.65
- Xi Tauri3.73
- Secunda HyadumDelta 1 Tauri3.77