Star profile
Phi Velorum
Hot blue starWhat is Phi Velorum
φ Velorum is a blue supergiant lying more than fifteen hundred light-years away, in the brilliant field of Vela —a fragment of the old ship Argo broken up by Lacaille in the 18th century—. Its cold, electric light travels from a region of the galactic disc densely populated by massive stars. The energy it pours out each second equals that of tens of thousands of suns.
Where it is and when to see it
Phi Velorum 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 Phi Velorum
- Constellation
- Vela
- Apparent magnitude
- 3.52
- Distance
- 1591.2 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 149.216° · Dec -54.568°
- Catalogue
- HIP 48774 · HD 86440
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
- MarkebKappa Velorum2.47
- Mu Velorum2.69
- HIP 467013.16
- Omicron Velorum3.60
- Psi Velorum3.60