The AsterNym star registry
Achernar
Achernar: the blue star of Eridanus
blue · Eridanus · α Eri · tenth-brightest star in the night sky
Achernar is a blue star in the constellation Eridanus, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 0.46 it is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Achernar 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
Achernar at a glance
- Constellation
- Eridanus
- Other name
- α Eri
- Catalogue number
- HIP 7588
- Distance
- ≈ 139 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 0.46 naked-eye
- Rank
- tenth-brightest star in the night sky
- Star type
- B6 Vpe
- Colour
- blue
- Best seen from
- The Southern Hemisphere and lower northern latitudes
- Right ascension
- 01h 37m 43s
- Declination
- −57° 14′ 12″
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 Achernar?
Achernar is a blue-white main-sequence star. Its surface runs somewhere between 10,000 and 30,000°C, which is what gives it a blue-white cast. 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.
It is spending its fuel at a rate the Sun never will. Most of the bright stars in familiar constellations are this kind, which is why the night sky looks younger and hotter than the average star actually is.
A star of this class gets tens of millions of years, against the Sun's ten thousand million.
It is a main-sequence star, which despite the word dwarf simply means it is in the long stable middle of its life, fusing hydrogen in its core exactly as the Sun is doing now.
The light you are looking at is old
The light arriving from Achernar tonight left in about 1887, some 139 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 also one of the brighter stars in the sky, which is why it carries a proper name at all rather than a catalogue number.
What does the name Achernar mean?
The system bears the traditional name of Achernar (sometimes spelled Achenar), derived from the Arabic آخر النهر, meaning "The End of the River".
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 Achernar dedication represent?
Achernar 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 Achernar?
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 33°N. It passes directly overhead at latitude 57°S. It stands highest at midnight in October, so October and November evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 0.46 it is bright enough to hold its own over city lights.
Achernar belongs to Eridanus, where it is the brightest star.
What does Achernar mean in astrology?
"The end of the river", the far terminus of Eridanus. The tradition, thin this far south, follows Ptolemy's Jupiter nature: journeys completed, high office reached at the end of a long course.
Projected onto the zodiac the way fixed-star astrology reads any star, Achernar stands at 15° Pisces at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 5 March 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 Achernar 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 Achernar →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Achernar dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Achernar's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Achernar keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Achernar
- What does Achernar mean in astrology?
- "The end of the river", the far terminus of Eridanus. The tradition, thin this far south, follows Ptolemy's Jupiter nature: journeys completed, high office reached at the end of a long course. Projected onto the zodiac, Achernar stands at 15° Pisces, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 5 March.
- Is Achernar the brightest star?
- Achernar is the tenth-brightest star in the night sky as seen from Earth. Sirius is the brightest.
- How far away is Achernar?
- Achernar is approximately 139 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 139 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Achernar?
- Achernar is the brightest star in Eridanus.
- Can everyone see Achernar?
- 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 33°N. It passes directly overhead at latitude 57°S. It stands highest at midnight in October, so October and November evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 0.46 it is bright enough to hold its own over city lights.
- Is dedicating Achernar an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Achernar 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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