Star profile
Beta Caelum
What is Beta Caelum
Beta Caeli is the brightest star of the Chisel, a constellation so tiny and unassuming that it slips easily unnoticed between Eridanus and Columba. Lacaille drew it in the eighteenth century to represent the engraver's tools. It is a yellow-white type-F star some 93 light-years away —an intimate distance in cosmic terms: its light set out for us in the early twentieth century.
Where it is and when to see it
Beta Caelum 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, when it culminates around midnight.
- From London it culminates about 1° above the horizon.
- From New York it culminates about 12° above the horizon.
- From Sydney it culminates about 87° above the horizon.
It can be seen from anywhere south of 53° N.
It ranks no. 3 in brightness among the 7 stars of Caelum in our catalogue. To find it, start from Alpha Caelum, the brightest: it lies about 5° away (a fist at arm's length covers about 10°).
The light you see today left it about 94 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 Beta Caelum
- Constellation
- Caelum
- Apparent magnitude
- 5.04
- Distance
- 93.5 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 70.514° · Dec -37.144°
- Catalogue
- HIP 21861 · HD 29992
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Other stars in Caelum
Caelum has 7 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
See all 7 stars in Caelum