Star profile
Omicron Virginis
What is Omicron Virginis
ο Virginis shines calmly within the Virgin, yet it hides an invisible companion. It is a binary system: a yellow giant eleven times the Sun, paired with a small white dwarf circling every 50.7 years. When that dwarf was once a dying giant, it sprayed its partner with heavy elements forged in nuclear fire. Today the giant still bears that chemical signature —a barium star.
Where it is and when to see it
Omicron Virginis lies in the northern 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 Omicron Virginis
- Constellation
- Virgo
- Apparent magnitude
- 4.12
- Distance
- 163.3 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 181.302° · Dec 8.733°
- Catalogue
- HIP 58948 · HD 104979
A symbolic commemorative gift: neither the signature nor the chosen name implies ownership of the star or recognition by the IAU.
Other stars in Virgo
Virgo has 99 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- SpicaAlpha Virginis0.98
- PorrimaGamma Virginis2.74
- VindemiatrixEpsilon Virginis2.85
- ZaniahEta Virginis3.89
- Nu Virginis4.04
- SyrmaIota Virginis4.07
- KangKappa Virginis4.18
- Tau Virginis4.23