Star profile
HIP 66257
Variable starWhat is HIP 66257
Within Canes Venatici beats a yellow-white variable whose brightness rises and falls with a slow, almost musical pulse. Its light has been traveling for roughly a hundred and fifty years: it set out when the first transatlantic cables were being laid and the telegraph began stitching the continents together. Slightly hotter and brighter than the Sun, it is an elder sibling that has not quite decided what it will become. Each oscillation of its glow is like an ancient breath we are only now able to hear.
Where it is and when to see it
HIP 66257 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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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 HIP 66257
- Constellation
- Canes Venatici
- Apparent magnitude
- 4.91
- Distance
- 148.9 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 203.699° · Dec 37.182°
- Catalogue
- HIP 66257 · HD 118216
A symbolic commemorative gift: neither the signature nor the chosen name implies ownership of the star or recognition by the IAU.
Other stars in Canes Venatici
Canes Venatici has 33 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- Cor CaroliAlpha 2 Canum Venaticorum2.89
- CharaBeta Canum Venaticorum4.24
- 24 Canum Venaticorum4.68
- 5 Canum Venaticorum4.76
- HIP 676654.76
- 25 Canum Venaticorum4.82
- HIP 645404.94
- 6 Canum Venaticorum5.01