Star profile
HIP 19968
Hot blue starWhat is HIP 19968
In the rarefied Camelopardalis, the silent giraffe of the northern sky, burns a hot blue star some 446 light-years away. Its light set out around 1580, when Drake was returning to Plymouth after circumnavigating the globe and the seas were ceasing to be an imagined map. Its surface, thousands of degrees above the Sun's, casts a cold radiance that cuts the darkness like a blade.
Where it is and when to see it
HIP 19968 lies in the northern celestial hemisphere. It is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky. Its best month of the year is December, when it culminates around midnight.
- From London it never sets and culminates about 80° up.
- From New York it never sets and culminates about 69° up.
- From Sydney it never rises above the horizon.
It can be seen from anywhere north of 28° S.
It ranks no. 50 in brightness among the 75 stars of Camelopardalis in our catalogue. To find it, start from Beta Camelopardalis, the brightest: it lies about 6° away (a fist at arm's length covers about 10°).
The light you see today left it about 450 years ago.
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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 HIP 19968
- Constellation
- Camelopardalis
- Apparent magnitude
- 5.69
- Distance
- 446.2 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 64.223° · Dec 61.850°
- Catalogue
- HIP 19968 · HD 26670
A symbolic commemorative gift: neither the signature nor the chosen name implies ownership of the star or recognition by the IAU.
Other stars in Camelopardalis
Camelopardalis has 75 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- Beta Camelopardalis4.03
- HIP 162284.21
- Alpha Camelopardalis4.26
- HIP 268825.62
- HIP 365285.63
- HIP 249145.64
- HIP 338275.69
- HIP 199835.72