Cor Caroli
HR 4915 · HIP 63125 · α2 CVn
👁️ Naked-eye
📋 A written introduction is coming — for now this page shows official values only.
Star
- Apparent magnitude
- 2.88 mag
- Parallax
- 28.41 mas → about 114.8 light-years away
- Spectral type
- A0spe...
- Right ascension
- 194.0069°
- Declination
- 38.3184°
- Designation
- HR 4915
- Bayer designation
- α2 CVn
- HIP number
- 63125
- IAU name adopted
- 2016-07-20
- Name language
- Latin
- Name origin (IAU)
- The name first appeared in 1673 on the northern half of a pair of celestial hemispheres that accompanied a book called Astroscopium by the English cartographer Francis Lamb. He labelled the star Cor Caroli Regis Martyris, a reference to the fact that King Charles I was beheaded, or ‘martyred’, as Lamb loyally put it (Charles had declared himself ‘martyr of the people’ at his execution).
Source:IAU Working Group on Star Names · checked 2026-11-02 ↗ESA Hipparcos Catalogue (ESA Gaia Archive) · checked 2026-11-03 ↗
Related
Constellation
In everyday life
- Light from this object takes about 115 years to reach Earth — the light you see tonight left around AD 1911 (official distance ÷ speed of light).
- At magnitude 2.9 it is bright enough for the naked eye (limit about 6) — look from somewhere dark.
- Declination 38.3° — it rises above the horizon in Seoul (37.6° N), so it is visible from Korea in the right season.
Worked out from this object's official values.