The AsterNym star registry
Adhil
Adhil: the warm orange star of Andromeda
warm orange · Andromeda · ξ And
Adhil is a warm orange giant, far along its stellar life in the constellation Andromeda, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 4.87 it is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Adhil 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
Adhil at a glance
- Constellation
- Andromeda
- Other name
- ξ And
- Catalogue number
- HIP 6411
- Distance
- ≈ 214 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 4.87 naked-eye
- Star type
- K0III-IV
- Colour
- warm orange
- Best seen from
- The Northern Hemisphere and lower southern latitudes
- Right ascension
- 01h 22m 20s
- Declination
- +45° 31′ 44″
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 Adhil?
Adhil is an orange giant. Its surface runs roughly 4,000 to 5,000°C, cool enough that the light carries a visible orange. 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.
Its colour is not the whole story. An orange star still in the steady part of its life would burn for tens of thousands of millions of years. This one is past that stage, and it is cool at the surface because it has swollen outward, not because it was born this way.
It is a giant, which is what a star becomes when it exhausts the hydrogen in its core. It has swollen outward and cooled at the surface, and it is now brighter than it ever was as a young star. The Sun will do this too, in about five thousand million years.
Adhil drifts about 3.3 arcseconds a century against the stars behind it. Slow by any human measure, and still enough that the sky your distant descendants see will not be the one in your photographs.
The light you are looking at is old
The light arriving from Adhil tonight left in about 1812, some 214 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 Adhil mean?
Adhil is a lingua franca term from an Arabic phrase al-dhayl meaning 'the train'.
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 Adhil dedication represent?
Adhil 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 Andromeda in the sky.”
Where can you see Adhil?
It is easy to see from most of the Northern Hemisphere. It can also appear from lower southern latitudes, but it never rises for observers south of about latitude 44°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 46°N. It stands highest at midnight in October, so October and November evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 4.87 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
Adhil belongs to Andromeda.
What does Adhil mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Adhil, 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, Adhil stands at 7° Taurus at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 27 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 Adhil 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 Adhil →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Adhil dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Adhil's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Adhil keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Adhil
- What does Adhil mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Adhil. Projected onto the zodiac, Adhil stands at 7° Taurus, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 27 April.
- Is Adhil the brightest star?
- Adhil shines at magnitude 4.87 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Adhil?
- Adhil is approximately 214 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 214 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Adhil?
- Adhil is part of Andromeda.
- Can everyone see Adhil?
- It is easy to see from most of the Northern Hemisphere. It can also appear from lower southern latitudes, but it never rises for observers south of about latitude 44°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 46°N. It stands highest at midnight in October, so October and November evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 4.87 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
- Is dedicating Adhil an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Adhil 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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