Star profile
2 Monocerotis
What is 2 Monocerotis
2 Monocerotis sits in an often forgotten patch of sky: Monoceros, a modern constellation drawn in the seventeenth century among the dazzling figures of Orion, Gemini and Canis Major. It is a white A-class star about two hundred and eighty light-years away, set against a background thick with stellar clusters and faint nebulae. Its light set out when Europe was just publishing its first modern sky catalogues.
Where it is and when to see it
2 Monocerotis 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 2 Monocerotis
- Constellation
- Monoceros
- Apparent magnitude
- 5.04
- Distance
- 286.4 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 89.768° · Dec -9.558°
- Catalogue
- HIP 28325 · HD 40536
A symbolic commemorative gift: neither the signature nor the chosen name implies ownership of the star or recognition by the IAU.
Other stars in Monoceros
Monoceros has 71 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- Beta Monocerotis3.76
- Alpha Monocerotis3.94
- Gamma Monocerotis3.99
- 3 Monocerotis4.92
- 27 Monocerotis4.93
- 19 Monocerotis4.99
- HIP 294175.06
- 10 Monocerotis5.06