Star profile
HIP 41039
Hot blue starWhat is HIP 41039
Seventeen hundred years ago, as Constantinople was being proclaimed the empire’s new capital, a blue star in Vela released the beam now reaching our eyes. It belongs to the lineage of hot giants —suns so vehement they burn through their fuel in mere tens of millions of years. Its blue-white hue betrays a surface above twenty thousand degrees, scorching beside the temperate six thousand of the Sun. To look at it is to lean over an age that did not yet call itself history.
Where it is and when to see it
HIP 41039 lies in the southern celestial hemisphere. It is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky. Its best month of the year is February, when it culminates around midnight.
- From London it never rises above the horizon.
- From New York it culminates about 1° above the horizon.
- From Sydney it culminates about 75° above the horizon.
It can be seen from anywhere south of 42° N.
It ranks no. 28 in brightness among the 127 stars of Vela in our catalogue. To find it, start from Gamma 2 Velorum, the brightest: it lies about 2° away (a fist at arm's length covers about 10°).
The light you see today left it about 1,700 years ago.
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Leave your signature on HIP 41039
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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 41039
- Constellation
- Vela
- Apparent magnitude
- 4.79
- Distance
- 1716.8 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 125.632° · Dec -48.490°
- Catalogue
- HIP 41039 · HD 70930
A symbolic commemorative gift: neither the signature nor the chosen name implies ownership of the star or recognition by the IAU.
Other stars in Vela
Vela has 127 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- Gamma 2 Velorum1.75
- AlsephinaDelta Velorum1.93
- SuhailLambda Velorum2.23
- HYG 1186324.65
- HIP 438784.68
- HIP 426244.74
- HIP 507994.82
- HIP 427264.83