Star profile
Psi Boötis
What is Psi Boötis
Psi Boötis shines at two hundred and forty-six light-years in Boötes, that figure of the shepherd or ploughman driving the Bears around the pole. It is an orange K-type giant, a star past the bloom of its life that has slowly swollen. Its warm light belongs to the celestial neighbourhood ruled by Arcturus, one of the brightest stars of the northern hemisphere.
Where it is and when to see it
Psi Boötis lies in the northern celestial hemisphere. It is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky. Its best month of the year is April: 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 Psi Boötis
- Constellation
- Boötes
- Apparent magnitude
- 4.52
- Distance
- 246.0 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 226.111° · Dec 26.948°
- Catalogue
- HIP 73745 · HD 133582
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.
- ArcturusAlpha Boötis-0.05
- IzarEpsilon Boötis2.35
- MuphridEta Boötis2.68
- Sigma Boötis4.47
- Pi 1 Boötis4.49
- Tau Boötis4.50
- Kappa 2 Boötis4.53
- Xi Boötis4.54