Star profile

Xuange

Lambda Boötis · Boötes

3D likeness based on its real data · class A · ~8,500 K

What is Xuange

Xuange shines 99 light-years away in Boötes, a white class-A star whose name comes from traditional Chinese astronomy. It means roughly «the shadowed pavilion» and belonged to the imperial constellations that organised the court's sky. The Western Boötes, the herdsman who follows the Great Bear, coexists here with the eastern cartography: two ways of reading the same strip of sky, neither more true than the other, only different in grammar.

Where it is and when to see it

Xuange 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, when it culminates around midnight.

From London it never sets and culminates about 85° up.
From New York it culminates about 85° above the horizon.
From Sydney it culminates about 10° above the horizon.

It can be seen from anywhere north of 44° S.

It ranks no. 11 in brightness among the 88 stars of Boötes in our catalogue. To find it, start from Arcturus, the brightest: it lies about 27° away (a fist at arm's length covers about 10°).

The light you see today left it about 99 years ago.

Find it on the sky map

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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 Xuange

Constellation: Boötes
Apparent magnitude: 4.18
Distance: 99.0 light years
Coordinates (J2000): RA 214.096° · Dec 46.088°
Catalogue: HIP 69732 · HD 125162

A symbolic commemorative gift: neither the signature nor the chosen name implies ownership of the star or recognition by the IAU.

Other stars in Boötes

Boötes has 88 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.

See all 88 stars in Boötes