Star profile
20 Ceti
Cool red starWhat is 20 Ceti
20 Ceti is a cool red giant in Cetus, an autumn-water constellation tied to the sea-monster of Andromeda's myth. Its surface does not reach 4,000 kelvin: it burns with the coppery, serene red of stars that have exhausted the hydrogen in their core and swollen to colossal proportions. The light grazing the pupil tonight left its atmosphere 587 years ago, when the Italian Renaissance was only beginning to rewrite the world.
Where it is and when to see it
20 Ceti lies in the southern 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 20 Ceti
- Constellation
- Cetus
- Apparent magnitude
- 4.78
- Distance
- 586.7 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 13.252° · Dec -1.144°
- Catalogue
- HIP 4147 · HD 5112
A symbolic commemorative gift: neither the signature nor the chosen name implies ownership of the star or recognition by the IAU.
Other stars in Cetus
Cetus has 111 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- DiphdaBeta Ceti2.04
- MenkarAlpha Ceti2.54
- Eta Ceti3.46
- Lambda Ceti4.71
- Sigma Ceti4.74
- Phi 1 Ceti4.77
- Epsilon Ceti4.83
- Kappa 1 Ceti4.84