Star profile
12 Ceti
Cool red starWhat is 12 Ceti
12 Ceti is a cool red M-type giant 567 light-years away in the Whale, that vast autumn-sky constellation. It belongs to the family of wide, lukewarm suns whose light carries the hue of mature copper. Its radiation set out in the High Middle Ages and now slips into modern telescopes, in a sky region where Mira Ceti once taught humanity what a variable star truly was.
Where it is and when to see it
12 Ceti lies in the southern celestial hemisphere. It is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky. Its best month of the year is September: 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 12 Ceti
- Constellation
- Cetus
- Apparent magnitude
- 5.72
- Distance
- 567.3 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 7.510° · Dec -3.957°
- Catalogue
- HIP 2353 · HD 2637
A symbolic commemorative gift: neither the signature nor the chosen name implies ownership of the star or recognition by the IAU.
Other stars in Cetus
Cetus has 111 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- DiphdaBeta Ceti2.04
- MenkarAlpha Ceti2.54
- Eta Ceti3.46
- 38 Ceti5.70
- 30 Ceti5.71
- 84 Ceti5.72
- 77 Ceti5.74
- HIP 72765.75