
Star profile
HIP 56391
What is HIP 56391
Toward the heart of the centaur, 386 light-years away, gleams a white A-type star whose light set out when Galileo was tuning his telescope and discovering the moons of Jupiter, in 1610. Hotter than the Sun and with a surface near 8,500 degrees, its pearly brilliance is typical of young stars that still preserve all the strength of their birth.
Where it is and when to see it
HIP 56391 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 56391
- Constellation
- Centaurus
- Apparent magnitude
- 5.39
- Distance
- 385.6 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 173.405° · Dec -40.587°
- Catalogue
- HIP 56391 · HD 100493
A symbolic commemorative gift: neither the signature nor the chosen name implies ownership of the star or recognition by the IAU.
Other stars in Centaurus
Centaurus has 174 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- Rigil KentaurusAlpha 1 Centauri-0.01
- HadarBeta Centauri0.61
- TolimanAlpha 2 Centauri1.35
- HIP 591845.34
- HIP 547465.37
- HIP 668495.38
- HIP 575125.42
- HIP 608555.45