# Suhail (Lambda Velorum)

Suhail (Lambda Velorum) is a star in the constellation Vela, magnitude 2.2.

**A cool orange supergiant in the Sails — one of four bright stars that shared the name Suhail.**

Suhail is a common Arabic boy’s name, and Arab skywatchers gave it to several bright southern stars, Canopus among them. This one was Suhail al-Wazn. As a star used in modern celestial navigation, its name was shortened to plain Suhail.

It is an orange [star](https://astropilot.space/glossary/star) about seven times the Sun’s mass, with a surface near 3,800 kelvin, and only about 32 million years old — heavy stars live fast. Though it is classed as a supergiant, it is probably an aging giant with a dead core of carbon and oxygen, burning helium and hydrogen in shells around it. Its deep, churning outer layers generate a magnetic field.

Its fate hangs on its weight. Stars like it usually end by puffing off a [planetary nebula](https://astropilot.space/glossary/planetary-nebula) and leaving a white dwarf. But Suhail may be just heavy enough for an electron-capture supernova, like the one that made the Crab Nebula, leaving behind a neutron star.

Suhail (Lambda Velorum) is 540 light-years away: the light we see from it set off around 1485, around the time Columbus crossed the Atlantic.

## Did you know?

- **Four Suhails.** The name Suhail was used for at least three other stars: Canopus, Gamma Velorum and Zeta Puppis. Canopus kept its own name, and Zeta Puppis became Naos.
- **Judge of animals’ ages.** In Chinese astronomy it is Tiānjì, the Judge for Estimating the Age of Animals, standing alone in its own asterism.

An orange 2nd-magnitude star in Vela, the Sails, north of the False Cross. Its colour stands out among the white and blue-white stars around it, especially in binoculars; it also varies slightly and irregularly.

## When and where to see it

It is best placed in the evening sky around March, when it crosses the meridian at about 10 pm local time (around midnight in February). It can be seen from everywhere south of 47°N and never sets south of 47°S.

At its highest it stands below the horizon from 50°N, 12° up from 35°N, 47° up from the equator, 82° up from 35°S.

## Facts

- Type: Star
- Constellation: Vela
- Designations: Lambda Velorum, λ Vel, HR 3634, HD 78647, HIP 44816
- Magnitude: 2.2
- Position: RA 9h 8.0m, Dec −43° 26′ (J2000)
- Spectral type: K4Ib
- Colour: orange-red (B−V 1.65)
- Distance: 540 light-years
- Discovered: Known since antiquity

Open AstroPilot to see when Suhail (Lambda Velorum) is highest tonight from your location, how easy it is with your telescope or binoculars, and an eyepiece view. https://astropilot.space/object/suhail