Star profile
66 Orionis
Highly luminous starWhat is 66 Orionis
66 Orionis is one of the most extraordinary beacons in the Flamsteed catalogue: a yellow G-type star visible to the naked eye despite lying around 326,000 light-years away, a distance comfortably beyond the width of the Milky Way. To reach magnitude 5.63 from such an abyss it must be an extraordinarily luminous supergiant, millions of times brighter than the Sun. The light arriving tonight left its atmosphere long before Homo sapiens walked the Earth.
Where it is and when to see it
66 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 66 Orionis
- Constellation
- Orion
- Apparent magnitude
- 5.63
- Distance
- 326200.0 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 91.243° · Dec 4.159°
- Catalogue
- HIP 28814 · HD 41380
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
- 35 Orionis5.60
- HIP 262155.60
- HIP 297165.62
- HIP 261975.67
- 63 Orionis5.67