Star profile
Alpha Horologium
What is Alpha Horologium
Alpha Horologii presides over a late, sparsely populated constellation, drafted by Lacaille in the eighteenth century to honour the pendulum clock. It is the chief beacon of a quiet southern region —an orange K-type giant whose light takes 115 years to reach Earth. Its warm hue stands out against the dark backdrop of a celestial corner where almost no bright stars rival it.
Where it is and when to see it
Alpha 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 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 Alpha Horologium
- Constellation
- Horologium
- Apparent magnitude
- 3.85
- Distance
- 115.0 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 63.500° · Dec -42.294°
- Catalogue
- HIP 19747 · HD 26967
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.
- Delta Horologium4.93
- Beta Horologium4.98
- Mu Horologium5.12
- Zeta Horologium5.21
- Nu Horologium5.25
- Eta Horologium5.30
- HIP 201615.33
- Lambda Horologium5.36