Star profile
Sceptrum
53 Eridani · Eridanus
What is Sceptrum
Sceptrum takes its name from the «Sceptrum Brandenburgicum», a short-lived eighteenth-century constellation drawn by Gottfried Kirch over the river Eridanus to honour the house of Brandenburg, long since reabsorbed into it and forgotten by modern celestial maps. It is an orange giant 110 light-years away, calm and golden, one of those quiet stars that outlived the constellation that once contained them. The light we perceive tonight set out at roughly the moment Marconi's radiotelegraph first crossed the Atlantic to Newfoundland.
Where it is and when to see it
Sceptrum 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 Sceptrum
- Constellation
- Eridanus
- Apparent magnitude
- 3.86
- Distance
- 109.9 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 69.545° · Dec -14.304°
- Catalogue
- HIP 21594 · HD 29503
A symbolic commemorative gift: neither the signature nor the chosen name implies ownership of the star or recognition by the IAU.
Other stars in Eridanus
Eridanus has 129 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- AchernarAlpha Eridani0.45
- CursaBeta Eridani2.78
- AcamarTheta 1 Eridani2.88
- Tau 4 Eridani3.70
- RanEpsilon Eridani3.72
- TheeminUpsilon 2 Eridani3.81
- AzhaEta Eridani3.89
- Nu Eridani3.93