Star profile
Beta Serpens
What is Beta Serpens
Beta Serpentis shines in the head of the Serpent with the clean white light of an A-type star, still young in cosmic terms. It marks one of the corners of the small triangle that forms the reptile's head, just before its body is split in two by the figure of Ophiuchus. At 155 light years away, its glow set out for us when the first precise maps of the southern sky were still being drawn.
Where it is and when to see it
Beta 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 Beta Serpens
- Constellation
- Serpens
- Apparent magnitude
- 3.65
- Distance
- 155.1 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 236.547° · Dec 15.422°
- Catalogue
- HIP 77233 · HD 141003
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
- Xi Serpens3.54
- Epsilon Serpens3.71
- Delta Serpens3.80
- Gamma Serpens3.85
- GudjaKappa Serpens4.09