Skip to main content
Stelvia
Back to the selector

Star profile

HIP 70987

3D likeness based on its real data · class K · ~4,200 K

What is HIP 70987

In the southern Centaur, about 315 light years away, an orange K-type star gleams discreetly. Its light departed around 1711, when Bach was beginning his career as an organist in Weimar and Europe was living through the first decades of full musical Baroque. Cooler than the Sun and bathed in a soft amber tone, it embodies that natural step toward stellar maturity in which suns expand their volume without losing serenity. The mythical centaur, one of the most extensive and rich constellations of the southern sky, offers it a noble and ancient stage.

Where it is and when to see it

HIP 70987 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.

Find it on the sky map

It opens in your browser. Free, no account, nothing to install.

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

If you don't have an account yet, we'll ask for an email to confirm it's you: we send you a link and that's it, no password.

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 70987

Constellation
Centaurus
Apparent magnitude
5.99
Distance
315.2 light years
Coordinates (J2000)
RA 217.795° · Dec -38.870°
Catalogue
HIP 70987 · HD 127193

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.

See all 174 stars in Centaurus