Star profile
HIP 43023
Highly luminous starWhat is HIP 43023
In the southern sails of Vela burns a white class A beacon whose light took close to 1853 years to reach us. When it set out, emperors Septimius Severus and Caracalla were touring the Roman provinces and Galen was writing medical treatises that would shape healing for centuries. It arrives now as a calm flash, indifferent to that era, suspended above skies finally able to read it with instruments no one back then could have dreamed of.
Where it is and when to see it
HIP 43023 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, when it culminates around midnight.
- From London it never rises above the horizon.
- From New York it culminates about 3° above the horizon.
- From Sydney it culminates about 78° above the horizon.
It can be seen from anywhere south of 44° N.
It ranks no. 14 in brightness among the 127 stars of Vela in our catalogue. To find it, start from Gamma 2 Velorum, the brightest: it lies about 6° away (a fist at arm's length covers about 10°).
The light you see today left it about 1,900 years ago.
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Leave your signature on HIP 43023
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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 43023
- Constellation
- Vela
- Apparent magnitude
- 3.87
- Distance
- 1853.4 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 131.507° · Dec -46.042°
- Catalogue
- HIP 43023 · HD 75063
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
- AlsephinaDelta Velorum1.93
- SuhailLambda Velorum2.23
- HIP 425703.77
- HIP 519863.84
- HIP 501913.85
- HIP 428844.05
- HIP 423124.11