Star profile
Nu Mensa
Southern polar starWhat is Nu Mensa
Nu Mensae lives in the Table, that unusual constellation Lacaille invented in honor of the South African mountain from which he charted the southern sky. It is the only constellation with an earthly geographical name, and there shines this yellow-white F-type star roughly 170 light-years away, in the most southern corner of the sky, almost glued to the south celestial pole. A quiet light on the imagined table of the heavens.
Where it is and when to see it
Nu 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 Nu Mensa
- Constellation
- Mensa
- Apparent magnitude
- 5.78
- Distance
- 169.8 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 65.242° · Dec -81.580°
- Catalogue
- HIP 20297 · HD 29116
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
- Pi Mensa5.65
- Delta Mensa5.67
- HIP 162905.68
- HIP 261695.79
- Xi Mensa5.84