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The Sky Above John Lennon at the Moment of Death
Person · 1940–1980 · Time recorded
The record
- Date of death: 1980-12-08
- Time of death (local): 23:15 (Time recorded) — Pronounced dead at 11:15 p.m. at Roosevelt Hospital by Dr. Stephan Lynn. He was shot outside the Dakota at about 10:50 p.m., so this is the recorded pronouncement time.
- Place: New York City (Roosevelt Hospital), United States
- UTC: 1980-12-09T04:15Z
The sky at that moment
- Zenith (the point directly overhead): RA 68.16°, Dec 40.81°
Star closest to the zenith
Computed with the same standard astronomy as our free calculator: the recorded time and place give the local sidereal time, which fixes the zenith; the closest star by angular distance inside a ±15° declination band of the real catalog is selected. What is shown here is the purely astronomical result — the nearest star to the zenith.
- Catalog ID: HIP 21052
- Constellation: Perseus
- Magnitude: 7.82
- Distance (light-years): 576.3
- Angular distance from zenith (degrees): 0.7510°
Brightest stars in that sky
The brightest real stars (catalog IDs from the HYG star catalog — mostly Hipparcos/HIP numbers) that were above 10° altitude at that same moment.
- HIP 24608 — Auriga, Magnitude 0.08 (80.3°)
- HIP 24436 — Orion, Magnitude 0.18 (40.0°)
- HIP 37279 — Canis Minor, Magnitude 0.4 (35.0°)
- HIP 27989 — Orion, Magnitude 0.45 (51.8°)
- HIP 21421 — Taurus, Magnitude 0.87 (65.7°)
Sources & verification
Last verified: 2026-09-17
This page is an independent astronomical record. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or authorized by the person, their family, or their estate. Memorial naming is commemorative and is not recognized by the IAU.
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