
Star profile
Theta Carinae
Hot blue starWhat is Theta Carinae
Theta Carinae is the brightest jewel of IC 2602, the open cluster astronomers call the Southern Pleiades. A hot blue subgiant, far younger than the Sun, it leads its sister stars across the southern sky in a choreography born barely thirty million years ago. Its cold, electric light travels some 455 years to reach us, carrying the reflection of a swarm of freshly kindled stars in the constellation of the Keel.
Where it is and when to see it
Theta Carinae 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.
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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 Theta Carinae
- Constellation
- Carina
- Apparent magnitude
- 2.74
- Distance
- 455.6 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 160.739° · Dec -64.394°
- Catalogue
- HIP 52419 · HD 93030
A symbolic commemorative gift: neither the signature nor the chosen name implies ownership of the star or recognition by the IAU.
Other stars in Carina
Carina has 124 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- CanopusAlpha Carinae-0.62
- MiaplacidusBeta Carinae1.67
- AviorEpsilon Carinae1.86
- AspidiskeIota Carinae2.21
- Upsilon Carinae2.92
- Omega Carinae3.29
- HIP 515763.30
- HIP 503713.39