Star profile
Theta Norma
Hot blue starWhat is Theta Norma
Theta Normae is a blue-white star of just seventeen million years — a newborn in cosmic terms — sitting 386 light-years away. It is a mercury-manganese star: a spectral curiosity in which those two heavy elements accumulate anomalously on its surface through delicate atomic diffusion processes. It belongs to Norma, the small southern constellation shaped like a carpenter's set square.
Where it is and when to see it
Theta Norma 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, when it culminates around midnight.
- From London it never rises above the horizon.
- From New York it culminates about 2° above the horizon.
- From Sydney it culminates about 77° above the horizon.
It can be seen from anywhere south of 43° N.
It ranks no. 9 in brightness among the 26 stars of Norma in our catalogue. To find it, start from Gamma 2 Norma, the brightest: it lies about 3° away (a fist at arm's length covers about 10°).
The light you see today left it about 390 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 Theta Norma
- Constellation
- Norma
- Apparent magnitude
- 5.13
- Distance
- 385.6 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 243.814° · Dec -47.372°
- Catalogue
- HIP 79653 · HD 145842
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Other stars in Norma
Norma has 26 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- Gamma 2 Norma4.01
- Epsilon Norma4.46
- Iota 1 Norma4.63
- Mu Norma4.86
- Kappa Norma4.95
- Gamma 1 Norma4.97
- HIP 802085.32
- HIP 807825.35