Star profile
Zeta Pictor
What is Zeta Pictor
Zeta Pictoris is an F-type subgiant 117 light-years away, in the small southern constellation of the Painter's Easel, drawn by Lacaille in the eighteenth century. With 1.49 solar masses and 2.3 solar radii, after 2.6 billion years it has begun to leave the main sequence. It shines almost eight times brighter than the Sun and approaches us at 44 km/s — a star caught in its evolutionary hinge, no longer fully young yet not yet a giant.
Where it is and when to see it
Zeta Pictor 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 Zeta Pictor
- Constellation
- Pictor
- Apparent magnitude
- 5.44
- Distance
- 116.5 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 79.842° · Dec -50.606°
- Catalogue
- HIP 24829 · HD 35072
A symbolic commemorative gift: neither the signature nor the chosen name implies ownership of the star or recognition by the IAU.
Other stars in Pictor
Pictor has 23 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- Alpha Pictor3.24
- Beta Pictor3.85
- Gamma Pictor4.50
- Lambda Pictor5.30
- HIP 272435.31
- Eta 1 Pictor5.37
- HIP 257685.46
- Iota Pictor5.58