Star profile
HIP 46283
Hot blue starWhat is HIP 46283
Its light departed Vela while Galileo was aiming his makeshift telescope at the skies of Padua and discovering the Medicean moons. Four hundred and twenty-nine years later, that same beam grazes our retina, unaware of telescopes, satellites or spacecraft. It is a blue-white star burning several times hotter than the Sun, consuming its reserves with luminous haste. Modest to the naked eye, its temperature places it among the most vehement surfaces a human gaze can register.
Where it is and when to see it
HIP 46283 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.
It opens in your browser. Free, no account, nothing to install.
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
If you don't have an account yet, we'll ask for an email to confirm it's you: we send you a link and that's it, no password.
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 46283
- Constellation
- Vela
- Apparent magnitude
- 5.09
- Distance
- 429.2 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 141.575° · Dec -53.379°
- Catalogue
- HIP 46283 · HD 81848
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 494855.06
- HIP 414835.08
- HIP 434135.09
- HIP 482245.09
- HIP 455055.12