Star profile
Tau 1 Serpens
Cool red starWhat is Tau 1 Serpens
Tau-1 Serpentis burns with a deep red in the head of the Serpent, that constellation split into two halves and held between the hands of Ophiuchus. It is a red M-type giant, a star well advanced in its evolution, swollen to colossal dimensions and cooled at the surface to barely three thousand degrees. Its light has been crossing space for nearly seven centuries: what we see tonight set out while all of Europe was dying under the Black Death of the fourteenth century.
Where it is and when to see it
Tau 1 Serpens lies in the northern 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 Tau 1 Serpens
- Constellation
- Serpens
- Apparent magnitude
- 5.16
- Distance
- 689.6 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 231.447° · Dec 15.428°
- Catalogue
- HIP 75530 · HD 137471
A symbolic commemorative gift: neither the signature nor the chosen name implies ownership of the star or recognition by the IAU.
Other stars in Serpens
Serpens has 65 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- UnukalhaiAlpha Serpens2.63
- Eta Serpens3.23
- Mu Serpens3.54
- 5 Serpens5.04
- 36 Serpens5.09
- 10 Serpens5.15
- 59 Serpens5.20
- Omega Serpens5.21