Star profile
Alsephina
Delta Velorum · Vela
Variable starWhat is Alsephina
Alsephina burns 80.6 light-years away in Vela, a white class-A star whose brightness pulses with subtle variability, as though breathing. Its name, recovered from the Arabic «al-safina», recalls the great Argo, the mythical ship that carried Jason to the Golden Fleece before modern cartographers split it into keel, sail and stern. As a variable star, looking twice at different moments literally means not seeing the same light.
Where it is and when to see it
Alsephina lies in the southern celestial hemisphere. It is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky. Its best month of the year is March: 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 Alsephina
- Constellation
- Vela
- Apparent magnitude
- 1.93
- Distance
- 80.6 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 131.176° · Dec -54.709°
- Catalogue
- HIP 42913 · HD 74956
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
- SuhailLambda Velorum2.23
- MarkebKappa Velorum2.47
- Mu Velorum2.69
- HIP 467013.16
- Phi Velorum3.52
- Omicron Velorum3.60
- Psi Velorum3.60