Star profile
HIP 3478
Hot blue starWhat is HIP 3478
At 623 light-years, in the mythological W of Cassiopeia, burns a class B blue star whose light set out toward the end of the fourteenth century, when Geoffrey Chaucer was writing the «Canterbury Tales». It belongs to a young, fierce stellar breed — tens of thousands of degrees at the surface, pouring out a blue-white light that betrays its power. It guards a regal profile in the northern autumn sky.
Where it is and when to see it
HIP 3478 lies in the northern celestial hemisphere. It is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky. Its best month of the year is October: 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 HIP 3478
- Constellation
- Cassiopeia
- Apparent magnitude
- 5.66
- Distance
- 623.7 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 11.109° · Dec 47.864°
- Catalogue
- HIP 3478 · HD 4142
A symbolic commemorative gift: neither the signature nor the chosen name implies ownership of the star or recognition by the IAU.
Other stars in Cassiopeia
Cassiopeia has 93 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- CihGamma Cassiopeiae2.15
- SchedarAlpha Cassiopeiae2.24
- CaphBeta Cassiopeiae2.28
- 53 Cassiopeiae5.59
- HIP 83625.63
- 21 Cassiopeiae5.64
- 2 Cassiopeiae5.68
- HIP 72515.69