Star profile
Sigma Centauri
Hot blue starWhat is Sigma Centauri
Sigma Centauri is a blue-white star, young and hot, burning on the flank of the Centaur at more than four hundred light-years from us. Its surface exceeds ten thousand degrees, a temperature that gives it a cold cobalt hue perceptible even to the naked eye on a dark night. The light now reaching Earth set out when the Italian Renaissance was bearing its first fruits and Florence was filling its workshops with painters and engineers.
Where it is and when to see it
Sigma Centauri 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 Sigma Centauri
- Constellation
- Centaurus
- Apparent magnitude
- 3.91
- Distance
- 411.9 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 187.010° · Dec -50.231°
- Catalogue
- HIP 60823 · HD 108483
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
- Upsilon 1 Centauri3.87
- Pi Centauri3.90
- HIP 659363.90
- Rho Centauri3.97
- HIP 718654.01