Star profile
72 Ophiuchi
What is 72 Ophiuchi
72 Ophiuchi burns with the calm white light typical of A-type stars, set within the sky region the ancients pictured as the serpent-bearer. Its glow reaches us after nearly eighty-seven years of travel through the void —when that light departed, radio was still a young invention on Earth—. It is not the most famous resident of Ophiuchus, yet its cold, clean hue makes it a precise marker among the summer constellations of the northern sky.
Where it is and when to see it
72 Ophiuchi lies in the northern 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 72 Ophiuchi
- Constellation
- Ophiuchus
- Apparent magnitude
- 3.71
- Distance
- 86.9 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 271.837° · Dec 9.564°
- Catalogue
- HIP 88771 · HD 165777
A symbolic commemorative gift: neither the signature nor the chosen name implies ownership of the star or recognition by the IAU.
Other stars in Ophiuchus
Ophiuchus has 88 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- RasalhagueAlpha Ophiuchi2.08
- SabikEta Ophiuchi2.43
- Zeta Ophiuchi2.54
- Theta Ophiuchi3.27
- Nu Ophiuchi3.32
- HYG 1191313.40
- Gamma Ophiuchi3.75
- MarfikLambda Ophiuchi3.82