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Star profile

Theta 1 Orionis

Hot blue star
3D likeness based on its real data · class O · ~30,000 K

What is Theta 1 Orionis

Theta-1 Orionis C is the dominant star of the Trapezium, the cluster of young suns that lights the heart of the Orion Nebula. Its brutal ultraviolet radiation sculpts the gas clouds around it and drives the fluorescence we see in every photograph of M42. It is one of the hottest stars in the sky reachable by the naked eye —the visible engine of the most famous stellar nursery.

Where it is and when to see it

Theta 1 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.

Find it on the sky map

It opens in your browser. Free, no account, nothing to install.

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

If you don't have an account yet, we'll ask for an email to confirm it's you: we send you a link and that's it, no password.

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 Theta 1 Orionis

Constellation
Orion
Apparent magnitude
5.13
Distance
326200.0 light years
Coordinates (J2000)
RA 83.819° · Dec -5.390°
Catalogue
HIP 26221 · HD 37022

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.

See all 128 stars in Orion