Star profile
Gamma Lupi
Hot blue starWhat is Gamma Lupi
Gamma Lupi burns blue-white on the haunch of the Wolf, the third brightest light of its constellation. What the naked eye reads as a single point is in fact a triple system: an inner pair spinning around itself every 2.85 days, attended by a third star far enough out to take roughly 170 years to complete one orbit. Its light, after travelling more than four centuries, reaches Earth from a southern corner of the sky where few observers pause, despite its sharp jewel-like pallor.
Where it is and when to see it
Gamma Lupi 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, when it culminates around midnight.
- From London it never rises above the horizon.
- From New York it culminates about 8° above the horizon.
- From Sydney it culminates about 83° above the horizon.
It can be seen from anywhere south of 49° N.
It ranks no. 3 in brightness among the 74 stars of Lupus in our catalogue. To find it, start from Alpha Lupi, the brightest: it lies about 11° away (a fist at arm's length covers about 10°).
The light you see today left it about 420 years ago.
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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 Gamma Lupi
- Constellation
- Lupus
- Apparent magnitude
- 2.80
- Distance
- 420.9 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 233.785° · Dec -41.167°
- Catalogue
- HIP 76297 · HD 138690
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Other stars in Lupus
Lupus has 74 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- Alpha Lupi2.30
- Beta Lupi2.68
- Delta Lupi3.22
- Epsilon Lupi3.37
- Zeta Lupi3.41
- Eta Lupi3.42
- Iota Lupi3.55
- Phi 1 Lupi3.57