Kap

Its story

Kappa Octantis belongs to the Octant, the constellation that wraps the south celestial pole. A white type A star some 273 light-years away, it shines in a sky empty of well-known stars, where Earth points its southern rotation axis without a beacon comparable to the northern Polaris. Sigma Octantis nominally occupies that role, but is so faint that stars like Kappa, themselves modest, nevertheless help to populate the silence of the invisible pole with light.