Star profile
Lambda Musca
What is Lambda Musca
Lambda Muscae is a white star flying near the southern celestial pole, in the small austral constellation of the Fly. About one hundred and twenty-seven light-years from Earth, its sharp light belongs to the deep southern sky, entirely invisible from Europe or from most of the Mediterranean coast. It is one of the beacons that Portuguese and Spanish navigators learned to recognise once they crossed the equator on the way to the Indies, when they first encountered a sky filled with constellations the ancients had never seen.
Where it is and when to see it
Lambda Musca lies in the southern celestial hemisphere. It is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky. Its best month of the year is May: 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 Lambda Musca
- Constellation
- Musca
- Apparent magnitude
- 3.63
- Distance
- 127.2 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 176.402° · Dec -66.729°
- Catalogue
- HIP 57363 · HD 102249
A symbolic commemorative gift: neither the signature nor the chosen name implies ownership of the star or recognition by the IAU.
Other stars in Musca
Musca has 31 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- Alpha Musca2.69
- Beta Musca3.04
- Delta Musca3.61
- Gamma Musca3.84
- Epsilon Musca4.06
- Mu Musca4.75
- Eta Musca4.79
- HIP 648204.86