Star profile
Tau Puppis
What is Tau Puppis
Tau Puppis glows on the stern of the Ship Argo, a constellation that Lacaille split apart in the 18th century from the mythical vessel of the Argonauts. An orange giant some 182 light-years away, its steady magnitude of 2.94 recalls how many of the sky's brightest beacons never needed a proper name to guide southern navigators across the sea.
Where it is and when to see it
Tau Puppis lies in the southern celestial hemisphere. It is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky. 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 Tau Puppis
- Constellation
- Puppis
- Apparent magnitude
- 2.94
- Distance
- 182.0 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 102.484° · Dec -50.615°
- Catalogue
- HIP 32768 · HD 50310
A symbolic commemorative gift: neither the signature nor the chosen name implies ownership of the star or recognition by the IAU.
Other stars in Puppis
Puppis has 145 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- NaosZeta Puppis2.21
- Pi Puppis2.71
- TureisRho Puppis2.83
- Nu Puppis3.17
- Sigma Puppis3.25
- AzmidiXi Puppis3.34
- HIP 378193.62
- HIP 384143.71