Star profile
HYG 118562
Binary systemWhat is HYG 118562
In Vela — the sail of the ancient ship Argo — two white stars share a gravitational dance some 80 light-years away. Their light set out around 1946, while ENIAC was running its first calculations in Philadelphia and the computer age was being born. Today, that silent pair crosses the firmament as a single drop of brightness, no one on Earth ever having seen one full turn of its waltz.
Where it is and when to see it
HYG 118562 lies in the southern celestial hemisphere. It is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky. Its best month of the year is March: 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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Astronomical data for HYG 118562
- Constellation
- Vela
- Apparent magnitude
- 5.00
- Distance
- 79.8 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 131.174° · Dec -54.708°
- Catalogue
- HYG 118562
A symbolic commemorative gift: neither the signature nor the chosen name implies ownership of the star or recognition by the IAU.
Other stars in Vela
Vela has 127 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- Gamma 2 Velorum1.75
- AlsephinaDelta Velorum1.93
- SuhailLambda Velorum2.23
- HIP 454394.92
- HIP 433474.94
- HIP 450854.99
- HIP 420885.01
- HIP 469505.01