Star profile
26 Canis Majoris
Variable starWhat is 26 Canis Majoris
26 Canis Majoris is a hot blue B-type star whose brightness varies over time, a faint pulsation characteristic of young massive stars. Its light crossed more than eight hundred light-years to reach us from the constellation of the Greater Dog, home also to Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky. When this light departed, the great Arab geographers were producing maps of the known world and stellar catalogues that still shape the names of the sky.
Where it is and when to see it
26 Canis Majoris 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 26 Canis Majoris
- Constellation
- Canis Major
- Apparent magnitude
- 5.91
- Distance
- 838.6 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 108.051° · Dec -25.943°
- Catalogue
- HIP 34798 · HD 55522
A symbolic commemorative gift: neither the signature nor the chosen name implies ownership of the star or recognition by the IAU.
Other stars in Canis Major
Canis Major has 90 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- SiriusAlpha Canis Majoris-1.44
- AdharaEpsilon Canis Majoris1.50
- WezenDelta Canis Majoris1.83
- HIP 347585.84
- HIP 356265.87
- HIP 296795.88
- HIP 310375.92
- HIP 323665.92