Star profile
2 Ceti
Hot blue starWhat is 2 Ceti
2 Ceti opens the long body of the sea monster with a faint blue glow, set in a stretch of sky almost empty of bright neighbours. It belongs to the B class —the realm of very hot, short-lived suns— and pours out radiation that takes nearly three centuries to reach us. To the eye it is a modest spark; in nature, a colossal furnace.
Where it is and when to see it
2 Ceti lies in the southern celestial hemisphere. It is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky. Its best month of the year is September, when it culminates around midnight.
- From London it culminates about 21° above the horizon.
- From New York it culminates about 32° above the horizon.
- From Sydney it culminates about 73° above the horizon.
It can be seen from anywhere south of 73° N.
It ranks no. 16 in brightness among the 111 stars of Cetus in our catalogue. To find it, start from Diphda, the brightest: it lies about 10° away (a fist at arm's length covers about 10°).
The light you see today left it about 270 years ago.
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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 Ceti
- Constellation
- Cetus
- Apparent magnitude
- 4.55
- Distance
- 272.3 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 0.935° · Dec -17.336°
- Catalogue
- HIP 301 · HD 225132
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Other stars in Cetus
Cetus has 111 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- DiphdaBeta Ceti2.04
- MenkarAlpha Ceti2.54
- Eta Ceti3.46
- Xi 2 Ceti4.30
- Xi 1 Ceti4.36
- 7 Ceti4.44
- Chi Ceti4.66
- Lambda Ceti4.71