Star profile

Rho Fornax

3D likeness based on its real data · class G · ~5,500 K

What is Rho Fornax

Rho Fornacis is a thick-disk star, a rarity among those the eye can still reach. Like Arcturus, it travels the galaxy on a markedly eccentric orbit, the legacy of an origin foreign to the main plane. It is a yellow-orange giant 269 light-years away, with an iron content below half the solar abundance: a chemical witness to an earlier era, formed when the universe was still poor in heavy metals.

Where it is and when to see it

Rho Fornax lies in the southern 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.

Find it on the sky map

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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

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.

Write my signature

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 Rho Fornax

Constellation: Fornax
Apparent magnitude: 5.52
Distance: 268.9 light years
Coordinates (J2000): RA 56.983° · Dec -30.168°
Catalogue: HIP 17738 · HD 23940

A symbolic commemorative gift: neither the signature nor the chosen name implies ownership of the star or recognition by the IAU.

Other stars in Fornax

Fornax has 26 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.

See all 26 stars in Fornax