Star profile
Tau Orionis
Hot blue starWhat is Tau Orionis
Tau Orionis burns along the Hunter’s flank as a hot blue B-type giant about 494 light-years away, near the western foot of the figure. It belongs to the great fraternity of young, luminous stars that trace Orion’s silhouette —brief, violent lives lighting the gas of their own cradle across the northern winter sky—, in one of the few regions of the heavens where the birth of new stars is still, at this very moment, an event unfolding before our telescopes.
Where it is and when to see it
Tau Orionis lies in the southern celestial hemisphere. It is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky. Its best month of the year is December: 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 Tau Orionis
- Constellation
- Orion
- Apparent magnitude
- 3.59
- Distance
- 494.2 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 79.402° · Dec -6.844°
- Catalogue
- HIP 24674 · HD 34503
A symbolic commemorative gift: neither the signature nor the chosen name implies ownership of the star or recognition by the IAU.
Other stars in Orion
Orion has 128 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- RigelBeta Orionis0.18
- BetelgeuseAlpha Orionis0.45
- BellatrixGamma Orionis1.64
- TabitPi 3 Orionis3.19
- Eta Orionis3.35
- MeissaLambda Orionis3.39
- Pi 4 Orionis3.68
- Pi 5 Orionis3.71