Star profile

HIP 2661

3D likeness based on its real data · class K · ~4,200 K

What is HIP 2661

In the quiet Sculptor shines an orange giant whose warm light has been traveling toward us for more than five centuries. When it set out, the Italian Renaissance was reaching its final great works and humanists were rescuing Greek manuscripts forgotten for a thousand years. It is cooler than the Sun yet far larger, a slow K-type bonfire in a constellation drawn in the eighteenth century to honor a sculptor's workshop tools, and beneath that calm dome it still glows.

Where it is and when to see it

HIP 2661 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, when it culminates around midnight.

From London it culminates about 9° above the horizon.
From New York it culminates about 20° above the horizon.
From Sydney it culminates about 86° above the horizon.

It can be seen from anywhere south of 60° N.

It ranks no. 16 in brightness among the 33 stars of Sculptor in our catalogue. To find it, start from Alpha Sculptor, the brightest: it lies about 5° away (a fist at arm's length covers about 10°).

The light you see today left it about 540 years ago.

Find it on the sky map

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Leave your signature on HIP 2661

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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 HIP 2661

Constellation: Sculptor
Apparent magnitude: 5.55
Distance: 538.3 light years
Coordinates (J2000): RA 8.421° · Dec -29.558°
Catalogue: HIP 2661 · HD 3059

A symbolic commemorative gift: neither the signature nor the chosen name implies ownership of the star or recognition by the IAU.

Other stars in Sculptor

Sculptor has 33 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.

See all 33 stars in Sculptor