Star profile
20 Hydrae
What is 20 Hydrae
20 Hydrae shines in the largest constellation in the sky, Hydra, the water snake that stretches more than a hundred degrees across the firmament. It is a yellow G-type star some 482 light-years away, already evolved, a distant sister of the Sun but far more luminous because of its more mature stage. Its light began its journey towards us when telescopes did not yet exist.
Where it is and when to see it
20 Hydrae 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 20 Hydrae
- Constellation
- Hydra
- Apparent magnitude
- 5.47
- Distance
- 481.8 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 137.398° · Dec -8.788°
- Catalogue
- HIP 44961 · HD 78732
A symbolic commemorative gift: neither the signature nor the chosen name implies ownership of the star or recognition by the IAU.
Other stars in Hydra
Hydra has 121 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- AlphardAlpha Hydrae1.99
- Gamma Hydrae2.99
- Zeta Hydrae3.11
- HIP 544775.43
- HIP 527375.44
- HIP 621315.46
- HIP 685815.47
- 24 Hydrae5.49