Star profile
Pi 2 Octans
Southern polar starWhat is Pi 2 Octans
A distant yellow star in Octans, the small southern constellation that wraps around the south celestial pole, almost two thousand light-years away. Its light set out around the dawn of our common era — before the Gospels were written — and has crossed a remarkable fraction of the galactic disc in silence to reach our instruments. Octans is one of the darkest constellations in the sky, yet it holds Sigma Octantis, the southern pole star toward which every Earthly axis in the south faintly points.
Where it is and when to see it
Pi 2 Octans lies in the southern celestial hemisphere. It is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky. Its best month of the year is June: 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 Pi 2 Octans
- Constellation
- Octans
- Apparent magnitude
- 5.65
- Distance
- 1953.3 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 226.196° · Dec -83.038°
- Catalogue
- HIP 73771 · HD 131246
A symbolic commemorative gift: neither the signature nor the chosen name implies ownership of the star or recognition by the IAU.
Other stars in Octans
Octans has 35 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- Nu Octans3.73
- Beta Octans4.13
- Delta Octans4.31
- Kappa Octans5.56
- Rho Octans5.57
- Pi 1 Octans5.65
- HIP 75685.66
- Gamma 2 Octans5.72