Skip to main content
Stelvia
Back to the selector

Star profile

Epsilon Mensa

3D likeness based on its real data · class K · ~4,200 K

What is Epsilon Mensa

Epsilon Mensae is an orange K-type star about 467 light-years away, another discreet point on the southern Table. The whole figure proved so faint to Lacaille that, by tradition, its stars evoked for him the cloth of cloud that drapes Cape Town's Table Mountain —hence the name and the muted character. This star, cool and distant, contributes to that low-light aesthetic that defines the only astronomical constellation named after a mountain.

Where it is and when to see it

Epsilon Mensa lies in the southern celestial hemisphere. It is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky. Its best month of the year is June: 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.

Find it on the sky map

It opens in your browser. Free, no account, nothing to install.

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

If you don't have an account yet, we'll ask for an email to confirm it's you: we send you a link and that's it, no password.

Write my signature

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 Epsilon Mensa

Constellation
Mensa
Apparent magnitude
5.54
Distance
466.7 light years
Coordinates (J2000)
RA 111.409° · Dec -79.094°
Catalogue
HIP 36039 · HD 60816

A symbolic commemorative gift: neither the signature nor the chosen name implies ownership of the star or recognition by the IAU.

Other stars in Mensa

Mensa has 15 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.

See all 15 stars in Mensa