Star profile
51 Orionis
What is 51 Orionis
51 Orionis glows amber some 294 light-years away, an orange K-type giant leaning at the edge of the celestial hunter. Its surface, thousands of degrees cooler than the Sun's, lends it the muted reddish hue that marks suns well into maturity. The light reaching us tonight set out while the great Baroque masters were still painting; it travels nearly three centuries to surface again in northern winter, beside the firmament's most recognisable figure.
Where it is and when to see it
51 Orionis 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 51 Orionis
- Constellation
- Orion
- Apparent magnitude
- 4.90
- Distance
- 293.6 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 85.619° · Dec 1.475°
- Catalogue
- HIP 26885 · HD 37984
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
- HIP 261994.78
- 15 Orionis4.81
- Psi 1 Orionis4.89
- HIP 300934.91
- HIP 267364.95