Star profile
Phi 3 Hydrae
What is Phi 3 Hydrae
Phi-3 Hydrae is a yellow type G star already turned giant, glowing some 211 light-years away along the serpentine back of Hydra, the largest constellation in the sky. It shares the Sun's spectral class but has long passed maturity, swelling to shine many times brighter. Its light has been travelling for so many centuries that it reached Earth in the middle of the nineteenth century.
Where it is and when to see it
Phi 3 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 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 3 Hydrae
- Constellation
- Hydra
- Apparent magnitude
- 4.91
- Distance
- 210.6 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 159.646° · Dec -16.877°
- Catalogue
- HIP 52085 · HD 92214
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 485594.87
- HIP 519794.87
- HIP 520094.89
- Chi 1 Hydrae4.92
- HIP 475924.93