Star profile
Xi Pavonis
Cool red starWhat is Xi Pavonis
Xi Pavonis is a red M-type giant, cool and enormous, some 469 light-years away in the fiery bird of the southern sky. Its surface, below 4,000 degrees, radiates a coppery light that contrasts vividly with its bluer neighbours under the eyepiece. It is a star in a late stage of life: its outer layers have already swollen to dimensions that would swallow the inner orbits of a system like ours, and it drives a warm stellar wind that slowly returns matter to space.
Where it is and when to see it
Xi Pavonis 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: 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 Xi Pavonis
- Constellation
- Pavo
- Apparent magnitude
- 4.35
- Distance
- 468.7 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 275.807° · Dec -61.494°
- Catalogue
- HIP 90098 · HD 168339
A symbolic commemorative gift: neither the signature nor the chosen name implies ownership of the star or recognition by the IAU.
Other stars in Pavo
Pavo has 44 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- PeacockAlpha Pavonis1.94
- Beta Pavonis3.42
- Delta Pavonis3.55
- Gamma Pavonis4.21
- Lambda Pavonis4.22
- Pi Pavonis4.33
- Kappa Pavonis4.40
- Nu Pavonis4.63