Star profile
Chi 2 Orionis
Hot blue starWhat is Chi 2 Orionis
Chi-2 Orionis is a B2 blue supergiant, one of the standard stars by which astronomers have calibrated the whole class since 1943. Though at 1,802 light-years she looks only faintly bright, her intrinsic luminosity beats Rigel by almost a full absolute magnitude: without intervening dust she would dominate Orion. She pulses very softly as an Alpha Cygni variable, beating once every 2.87 days, almost imperceptibly.
Where it is and when to see it
Chi 2 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
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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 Chi 2 Orionis
- Constellation
- Orion
- Apparent magnitude
- 4.64
- Distance
- 1802.2 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 90.980° · Dec 20.138°
- Catalogue
- HIP 28716 · HD 41117
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
- Psi 2 Orionis4.59
- Upsilon Orionis4.62
- Pi 1 Orionis4.64
- 11 Orionis4.65
- Omicron 1 Orionis4.71