Star profile
HIP 50493
What is HIP 50493
In Vela shines a yellow-white star of F type whose light set out one hundred and eighteen years ago, just when Einstein was publishing his first papers on relativity and reshaping the very notion of time. Slightly hotter than the Sun, it sheds a pale-gold glow, neither truly warm nor truly cool, characteristic of its class. It is a serene point in the rigging of the old celestial ship, a light that serves as a counterweight to the larger embers and still crosses the southern sky every night.
Where it is and when to see it
HIP 50493 lies in the southern celestial hemisphere. It is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky. Its best month of the year is April: 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 50493
- Constellation
- Vela
- Apparent magnitude
- 5.80
- Distance
- 117.6 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 154.658° · Dec -56.110°
- Catalogue
- HIP 50493 · HD 89569
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 500785.78
- HIP 421775.79
- HIP 436035.79
- HIP 537625.81
- HIP 416215.82