Star profile
Meissa
Lambda Orionis · Orion
Hot blue starWhat is Meissa
Meissa marks the head of Orion the hunter, one of the few O-type stars accessible to the human eye —so hot its surface tops 35,000 degrees. At 1,098 light-years, it lights up a diffuse nebula that surrounds it like a faint blue halo. Its Arabic name «al-maysān» means «the shining» or «the majestic»; when you see it, know that it belongs to the handful of blue giants destined to end their lives in supernova.
Where it is and when to see it
Meissa lies in the northern 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 Meissa
- Constellation
- Orion
- Apparent magnitude
- 3.39
- Distance
- 1098.3 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 83.784° · Dec 9.934°
- Catalogue
- HIP 26207 · HD 36861
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
- HatysaIota Orionis2.75
- TabitPi 3 Orionis3.19
- Eta Orionis3.35
- Tau Orionis3.59
- Pi 4 Orionis3.68