Star profile
HIP 41817
Hot blue starWhat is HIP 41817
In tiny Pyxis, the celestial sailor's compass, a blue B-type star shines 345 light years away. Its light set out around 1681, in the heart of the European scientific revolution, when Newton was already at work on his Principia. Far hotter and more massive than the Sun, it gives off that bluish-white blaze typical of young and vigorous stars. This modern constellation was sketched by Lacaille in the eighteenth century to accompany the Argo ships across the southern sky, and the star fits like a cold light at the heart of that small compass.
Where it is and when to see it
HIP 41817 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: 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 HIP 41817
- Constellation
- Pyxis
- Apparent magnitude
- 5.42
- Distance
- 345.2 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 127.879° · Dec -19.577°
- Catalogue
- HIP 41817 · HD 72310
A symbolic commemorative gift: neither the signature nor the chosen name implies ownership of the star or recognition by the IAU.
Other stars in Pyxis
Pyxis has 18 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- Alpha Pyxidis3.68
- Beta Pyxidis3.97
- Gamma Pyxidis4.02
- HIP 424305.05
- HIP 433525.19
- Eta Pyxidis5.24
- Epsilon Pyxidis5.59
- HIP 417235.61