Star profile
Alcyone
Eta Tauri · Taurus
Hot blue starWhat is Alcyone
Alcyone is the brightest of the Pleiades, the open cluster that appears in myths, calendars and pottery across half the world. Its name comes from one of the seven mythical daughters of Atlas in Greek tradition. It is a hot blue star, wrapped in the cluster's bluish nebulosity, and at 403 light-years its light set out before the great Dutch Baroque masters had painted their first portrait.
Where it is and when to see it
Alcyone 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 Alcyone
- Constellation
- Taurus
- Apparent magnitude
- 2.85
- Distance
- 403.2 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 56.871° · Dec 24.105°
- Catalogue
- HIP 17702 · HD 23630
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
- TianguanZeta Tauri2.97
- ChamukuyTheta 2 Tauri3.40
- Lambda Tauri3.41
- AinEpsilon Tauri3.53
- Omicron Tauri3.61
- Atlas3.62