Star profile
Canopus
Alpha Carinae · Carina
Highly luminous starWhat is Canopus
Canopus burns in the keel of the ship Argo with a fierce yellow-white glow, the second-brightest beacon of the entire night sky. Ancient mariners steered by it across southern oceans, and modern spacecraft still lock onto its light to find their bearings in the void. The glimmer reaching Earth tonight left Carina around 1716, when much of the world remained uncharted.
Where it is and when to see it
Canopus lies in the southern celestial hemisphere. It is one of the brightest stars in the sky: visible even from a city. Its best month of the year is January: 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 Canopus
- Constellation
- Carina
- Apparent magnitude
- -0.62
- Distance
- 309.2 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 95.988° · Dec -52.696°
- Catalogue
- HIP 30438 · HD 45348
A symbolic commemorative gift: neither the signature nor the chosen name implies ownership of the star or recognition by the IAU.
Other stars in Carina
Carina has 124 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- MiaplacidusBeta Carinae1.67
- AviorEpsilon Carinae1.86
- AspidiskeIota Carinae2.21
- Theta Carinae2.74
- Upsilon Carinae2.92
- Omega Carinae3.29
- HIP 515763.30
- HIP 503713.39