Star profile
HIP 89981
Cool red starWhat is HIP 89981
In the coils of the circumpolar Dragon burns a red M-class giant, a cool and bloated star whose ruby light took some six hundred and fifty years to reach us. When that glow set out, the first incunabula were being printed in Europe and the Black Death had just redrawn the continent's demographic map. Its deep red — closer to embers than to flame — belongs to stars that long ago left the stable phase the Sun still inhabits.
Where it is and when to see it
HIP 89981 lies in the northern celestial hemisphere. It is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky. Its best month of the year is July, when it culminates around midnight.
- From London it never sets and culminates about 88° up.
- From New York it culminates about 82° above the horizon.
- From Sydney it culminates about 7° above the horizon.
It can be seen from anywhere north of 41° S.
It ranks no. 44 in brightness among the 122 stars of Draco in our catalogue. To find it, start from Eltanin, the brightest: it lies about 5° away (a fist at arm's length covers about 10°).
The light you see today left it about 650 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 HIP 89981
- Constellation
- Draco
- Apparent magnitude
- 5.02
- Distance
- 648.5 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 275.386° · Dec 49.122°
- Catalogue
- HIP 89981 · HD 169305
A symbolic commemorative gift: neither the signature nor the chosen name implies ownership of the star or recognition by the IAU.
Other stars in Draco
Draco has 122 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- EltaninGamma Draco2.24
- AthebyneEta Draco2.73
- RastabanBeta Draco2.79
- 4 Draco5.01
- 30 Draco5.02
- 35 Draco5.02
- 46 Draco5.03
- 17 Draco5.07