The AsterNym star registry
Aerostaticus
Aerostaticus: the white star of Microscopium
white · Microscopium · ε Mic
Aerostaticus is a white star, burning hotter than our own Sun in the constellation Microscopium, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 4.71 it is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Aerostaticus 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
Aerostaticus at a glance
- Constellation
- Microscopium
- Other name
- ε Mic
- Catalogue number
- HIP 105140
- Distance
- ≈ 182 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 4.71 naked-eye
- Star type
- A0V
- Colour
- white
- Best seen from
- The Southern Hemisphere and lower northern latitudes
- Right ascension
- 21h 17m 56s
- Declination
- −32° 10′ 21″
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 Aerostaticus?
Aerostaticus is a white main-sequence star. 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 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.
Aerostaticus drifts about 6.0 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 Aerostaticus tonight left in about 1844, some 182 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 could a Aerostaticus dedication represent?
Aerostaticus 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 Microscopium in the sky.”
Where can you see Aerostaticus?
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 58°N. It passes directly overhead at latitude 32°S. It stands highest at midnight in August, so August and September evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 4.71 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
Aerostaticus belongs to Microscopium, where it is the brightest star.
What does Aerostaticus mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Aerostaticus, 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, Aerostaticus stands at 11° Aquarius at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 30 January 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 Aerostaticus 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 Aerostaticus →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Aerostaticus dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Aerostaticus's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Aerostaticus keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Aerostaticus
- What does Aerostaticus mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Aerostaticus. Projected onto the zodiac, Aerostaticus stands at 11° Aquarius, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 30 January.
- Is Aerostaticus the brightest star?
- Aerostaticus shines at magnitude 4.71 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Aerostaticus?
- Aerostaticus is approximately 182 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 182 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Aerostaticus?
- Aerostaticus is the brightest star in Microscopium.
- Can everyone see Aerostaticus?
- 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 58°N. It passes directly overhead at latitude 32°S. It stands highest at midnight in August, so August and September evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 4.71 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
- Is dedicating Aerostaticus an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Aerostaticus 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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