Star profile
Gamma Pictor
What is Gamma Pictor
Gamma Pictoris is a K1 III orange giant, shining fifty-three times brighter than the Sun and swollen to about eleven solar diameters. The constellation of the Painter's Easel —another of Lacaille's eighteenth-century southern inventions— is discreet, yet this third-brightest light fulfils its role from some 177 light-years away, a serene reminder that almost any yellow star like the Sun will one day come to resemble this: slow, dilated, golden in retirement.
Where it is and when to see it
Gamma 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 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 Gamma Pictor
- Constellation
- Pictor
- Apparent magnitude
- 4.50
- Distance
- 176.8 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 87.457° · Dec -56.167°
- Catalogue
- HIP 27530 · HD 39523
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
- Delta Pictor4.72
- HIP 289915.04
- Eta 2 Pictor5.05
- HIP 276215.16
- HIP 309325.20
- HIP 279475.29