Star profile
Xi 1 Sagittarii
Hot blue starWhat is Xi 1 Sagittarii
Xi-1 Sagittarii is one of the most distant stars the unaided eye can reach: more than two thousand light-years away, its light began the journey when Rome was still a republic. It is a hot blue B-type beacon, embedded in the heart of the Milky Way, in the very direction where the galactic centre lies hidden. Its brilliance crosses one of the most densely populated regions of the sky, sown with clusters and nebulae that only the northern summer reveals in their full splendour.
Where it is and when to see it
Xi 1 Sagittarii lies in the southern celestial hemisphere. It is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky. Its best month of the year is July: 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 1 Sagittarii
- Constellation
- Sagittarius
- Apparent magnitude
- 5.02
- Distance
- 2064.6 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 284.335° · Dec -20.656°
- Catalogue
- HIP 93057 · HD 175687
A symbolic commemorative gift: neither the signature nor the chosen name implies ownership of the star or recognition by the IAU.
Other stars in Sagittarius
Sagittarius has 117 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- Kaus AustralisEpsilon Sagittarii1.79
- NunkiSigma Sagittarii2.05
- AscellaZeta Sagittarii2.60
- HIP 880605.00
- Nu 2 Sagittarii5.00
- 61 Sagittarii5.01
- Chi 1 Sagittarii5.02
- 55 Sagittarii5.06