Star profile
Theta Cancri
What is Theta Cancri
Theta Cancri is an orange K5 giant, swollen to forty times the Sun's radius, 415 light-years away within the Crab. Together with Eta Cancri it completes an irregular box around the Beehive Cluster (M44), one of the oldest and most beautiful open clusters in the sky, though it does not belong to the group itself: it frames it from far behind. A useful false member that points toward the real treasure.
Where it is and when to see it
Theta Cancri lies in the northern 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 Theta Cancri
- Constellation
- Cancer
- Apparent magnitude
- 5.33
- Distance
- 415.0 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 127.899° · Dec 18.094°
- Catalogue
- HIP 41822 · HD 72094
A symbolic commemorative gift: neither the signature nor the chosen name implies ownership of the star or recognition by the IAU.
Other stars in Cancer
Cancer has 49 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- TarfBeta Cancri3.53
- Asellus AustralisDelta Cancri3.94
- Iota Cancri4.03
- Sigma 3 Cancri5.23
- Kappa Cancri5.23
- Mu 2 Cancri5.30
- Eta Cancri5.33
- Pi 2 Cancri5.36