Star profile
50 Cancri
What is 50 Cancri
50 Cancri is a white A-class star set between the claws of the Crab, not far from the famous Beehive cluster. At 176 light-years its near-pure hydrogen atmosphere makes it markedly hotter than the Sun and gives it a cold, clean tone at magnitude 5.89, at the very edge of naked-eye visibility. The light arriving tonight left its surface around 1850, when the first daguerreotype photographs of stars were being taken.
Where it is and when to see it
50 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 50 Cancri
- Constellation
- Cancer
- Apparent magnitude
- 5.89
- Distance
- 176.0 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 131.733° · Dec 12.110°
- Catalogue
- HIP 43121 · HD 74873
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
- HIP 408665.80
- HIP 444065.85
- Omega 1 Cancri5.87
- 66 Cancri5.89
- HIP 421725.91