Star profile
HIP 48559
What is HIP 48559
In the coiled tail of Hydra shines an orange K-class giant, far larger than the Sun, whose coppery glow crossed the void for more than three centuries. When it left that atmosphere, the first Baroque violins were being tuned in Europe and Newton was finishing his laws of motion. What we see tonight is a thermal echo of that age of wigs, sextants and newly understood comets.
Where it is and when to see it
HIP 48559 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 HIP 48559
- Constellation
- Hydra
- Apparent magnitude
- 4.87
- Distance
- 341.9 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 148.551° · Dec -25.932°
- Catalogue
- HIP 48559 · HD 85859
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
- 51 Hydrae4.78
- 27 Hydrae4.80
- 9 Hydrae4.87
- HIP 519794.87
- HIP 520094.89