Star profile
Delta Mensa
Southern polar starWhat is Delta Mensa
Delta Mensae dwells in the southern polar sky, close to the Large Magellanic Cloud and to the dim vertex of the south pole. An orange type K giant some 424 light-years away, its warm light barely stands out in a field dominated by the silent beauty of the satellite galaxy. Its circumpolar position for far-southern observers makes it a continuous witness to the nightly turning of the firmament, a discreet beacon in one of the most exclusively austral corners of the sky.
Where it is and when to see it
Delta Mensa lies in the southern celestial hemisphere. It is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky. Its best month of the year is July: 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 Delta Mensa
- Constellation
- Mensa
- Apparent magnitude
- 5.67
- Distance
- 423.6 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 64.497° · Dec -80.214°
- Catalogue
- HIP 20049 · HD 28525
A symbolic commemorative gift: neither the signature nor the chosen name implies ownership of the star or recognition by the IAU.
Other stars in Mensa
Mensa has 15 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- Alpha Mensa5.08
- Gamma Mensa5.18
- Beta Mensa5.30
- Epsilon Mensa5.54
- Zeta Mensa5.61
- Pi Mensa5.65
- HIP 162905.68
- Nu Mensa5.78