Star profile
2 Hydrae
Variable starWhat is 2 Hydrae
2 Hydrae is a young white A-type star, only 163 light-years away, in the long body of Hydra. It vibrates with faint variations in brightness, that delicate, rapid pulsation typical of young A-class stars still finding their inner balance. Its distance is relatively small in cosmic terms: the light crossing the atmosphere tonight left its surface in the middle of the second half of the nineteenth century, almost on the edge of modern photography.
Where it is and when to see it
2 Hydrae 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 2 Hydrae
- Constellation
- Hydra
- Apparent magnitude
- 5.60
- Distance
- 163.2 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 126.613° · Dec -3.987°
- Catalogue
- HIP 41375 · HD 71297
A symbolic commemorative gift: neither the signature nor the chosen name implies ownership of the star or recognition by the IAU.
Other stars in Hydra
Hydra has 121 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- AlphardAlpha Hydrae1.99
- Gamma Hydrae2.99
- Zeta Hydrae3.11
- HIP 513645.58
- HIP 495695.59
- HIP 514915.59
- 19 Hydrae5.60
- 28 Hydrae5.60