Star profile
Mu Centauri
Variable starWhat is Mu Centauri
Mu Centauri is a hot blue B-type giant some 506 light-years away, embedded deep in the Centaur. It is a textbook Be star: it spins so fast that it flings off an equatorial disc of hot gas, episodes that make its brightness flicker and wrap it in a veil invisible to the eye. Its blue-white light, delicate in the deep southern sky, set out toward us when printing presses were just being invented in Europe and no one yet suspected that stars could have spinning atmospheres of their own.
Where it is and when to see it
Mu 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 May: 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 Mu Centauri
- Constellation
- Centaurus
- Apparent magnitude
- 3.47
- Distance
- 505.7 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 207.404° · Dec -42.474°
- Catalogue
- HIP 67472 · HD 120324
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
- Lambda Centauri3.11
- Kappa Centauri3.13
- Nu Centauri3.41
- Phi Centauri3.83
- Tau Centauri3.85