Star profile
Heze
Zeta Virginis · Virgo
What is Heze
Heze occupies the quiet centre of Virgo, one of the largest constellations in the zodiac, as a white A-type star just over 74 light-years away. No grand legends cling to it: its name, of uncertain origin, survived by inertia through Arabic and medieval European catalogues without anyone quite knowing why. Perhaps that anonymity is its beauty — a clean, young, unscripted light that set out around 1952, when astronomy was just beginning to chart the sky in radio frequencies.
Where it is and when to see it
Heze 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 Heze
- Constellation
- Virgo
- Apparent magnitude
- 3.38
- Distance
- 74.1 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 203.673° · Dec -0.596°
- Catalogue
- HIP 66249 · HD 118098
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
- MinelauvaDelta Virginis3.39
- Gamma Virginis3.52
- ZavijavaBeta Virginis3.59
- 109 Virginis3.73
- Mu Virginis3.87