The AsterNym star registry
Acamar
Acamar: the white star of Eridanus
white · Eridanus · θ Eri
Acamar is a white star, burning hotter than our own Sun in the constellation Eridanus, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 2.88 it is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Acamar is not. Some IAU-recognised names are ancient; others were adopted by the IAU only recently. Either way, the star already has a scientific identity, and a dedication attaches a human story to it.
Real star · Personal dedication · Recorded in the AsterNym registry
See what a dedicated page looks like: preview
Acamar at a glance
- Constellation
- Eridanus
- Other name
- θ Eri
- Catalogue number
- HIP 13847
- Distance
- ≈ 161 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 2.88 naked-eye
- Star type
- A4 IV
- Colour
- white
- Best seen from
- The Southern Hemisphere and lower northern latitudes
- Right ascension
- 02h 58m 12s
- Declination
- −40° 18′ 17″
J2000 catalogue coordinates that can be independently cross-checked against astronomical databases. A planetarium app showing coordinates of date will differ slightly, because proper motion and precession move a star’s apparent position over time.
What kind of star is Acamar?
Acamar is a white subgiant. Its surface runs around 7,500 to 10,000°C, hot enough to look white or blue-white to the eye. Colour in a star is a temperature reading rather than a decoration: the hot ones are blue and the cool ones red, the opposite way round to a kitchen tap.
These are the classic bright white stars. Sirius and Vega are both this kind, and they are the reason people describe stars as white when most of the galaxy's stars are actually red and too faint to see.
A star of this class gets roughly a thousand million years, a tenth of what the Sun gets.
It is a subgiant, caught in the short crossing between an ordinary life and a giant one. Its core has run out of hydrogen but its outer layers have not finished expanding, and astronomically this stage passes quickly.
The light you are looking at is old
The light arriving from Acamar tonight left in about 1865, some 161 years ago. Everything that has happened since, every person you have heard of from the last few centuries, happened while it was in transit.
That delay is the part people find hardest and like most. A star is the one thing you can give someone that was already old before either of you was born and will outlast anything else you could have chosen.
It is comfortably visible without equipment on a decent night.
What does the name Acamar mean?
The system bore the traditional name Acamar, derived from the Arabic آخِر النَّهْر Ākhir an-nahr, which means "the end of the river", via a Roman-alphabet handwriting misread "rn" to "m".
The term "Ākhir an-nahr", or "Achr al Nahr", appeared in the catalogue of stars in the Calendarium of Al Achsasi Al Mouakket, which was translated into Latin as Postrema Fluminis.
Name origin from English Wikipedia. AsterNym does not invent an etymology where none is recorded, and most stars in this catalogue have none: they carry modern names, or a catalogue designation and nothing older.
What could a Acamar dedication represent?
Acamar is especially meaningful for someone who:
- · Deserves something older than any gift shop
- · Marks a beginning, an anniversary or a promise
- · Is remembered every time you look up
- · Has a light you want recorded somewhere permanent
Dedication idea
“For the one I think of when I find Eridanus in the sky.”
Where can you see Acamar?
It is easy to see from much of the Southern Hemisphere. It can also appear from lower northern latitudes, but it never rises for observers north of about latitude 50°N. It passes directly overhead at latitude 40°S. It stands highest at midnight in November, so November and December evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 2.88 it is an easy naked-eye star from any reasonably dark spot.
Acamar belongs to Eridanus.
What does Acamar mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Acamar, and we don’t invent lore where none exists. What astrology can still read is the star’s real position, below.
Projected onto the zodiac the way fixed-star astrology reads any star, Acamar stands at 23° Aries at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 13 April in the years around 2000. Fixed-star longitude shifts slowly against the tropical zodiac because of precession, about one degree every seventy-two years, so a natal conjunction must be calculated for the birth year rather than read off this J2000 value or a calendar date.
Traditional interpretations, not facts or predictions. The position and dates are computed.
Dedicate Acamar to someone who matters
A flower fades. A card is eventually put away. A star gives your message a place in the sky.
from$29.95a year
Dedicate Acamar →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Acamar dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Acamar's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Acamar keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Acamar
- What does Acamar mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Acamar. Projected onto the zodiac, Acamar stands at 23° Aries, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 13 April.
- Is Acamar the brightest star?
- Acamar shines at magnitude 2.88 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Acamar?
- Acamar is approximately 161 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 161 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Acamar?
- Acamar is part of Eridanus.
- Can everyone see Acamar?
- It is easy to see from much of the Southern Hemisphere. It can also appear from lower northern latitudes, but it never rises for observers north of about latitude 50°N. It passes directly overhead at latitude 40°S. It stands highest at midnight in November, so November and December evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 2.88 it is an easy naked-eye star from any reasonably dark spot.
- Is dedicating Acamar an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Acamar keeps its internationally recognised astronomical name. An AsterNym dedication records your personal name and message in the AsterNym registry without changing the star's scientific identity.
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