The AsterNym star registry
Albireo
Albireo: the warm orange star of Cygnus
warm orange · Cygnus · β Cyg
Albireo is a warm orange giant, far along its stellar life in the constellation Cygnus, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 3.18 it is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Albireo 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
Albireo at a glance
- Constellation
- Cygnus
- Other name
- β Cyg
- Catalogue number
- HIP 95947
- Distance
- ≈ 430 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 3.18 naked-eye
- Star type
- K3 II + B8 V
- Colour
- warm orange
- Best seen from
- The Northern Hemisphere and lower southern latitudes
- Right ascension
- 19h 30m 44s
- Declination
- +27° 57′ 35″
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 Albireo?
Albireo is an orange bright 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 sits between a giant and a supergiant: already expanded well beyond its original size, already past the steady middle of its life, and bright enough to be picked out from a very long way off.
The light you are looking at is old
Albireo is about 430 light years away, so the light reaching you now set out around 1596. You are not looking at the star as it is. You are looking at the star as it was, and there is no way to see it any other way.
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 Albireo mean?
The word "ireo" is obscure as wellIdeler suggests that Gerard took "Eurisim" to mean the plant Erysimum, which is called irio in Latin, but the ablative case of that is not "ireo" but irione.
In any case, Ideler proposed that (somehow) the phrase "ab ireo" was applied to the star at the head of the bird, and this became "Albireo" when an "l" was mistakenly inserted as though it was an Arabic name.
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 Albireo dedication represent?
Albireo 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 Cygnus in the sky.”
Where can you see Albireo?
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 62°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 28°N. It stands highest at midnight in July, so July and August evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 3.18 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
Albireo belongs to Cygnus.
What does Albireo mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Albireo, 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, Albireo stands at 1° Aquarius at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 20 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 Albireo 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 Albireo →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Albireo dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Albireo's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Albireo keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Albireo
- What does Albireo mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Albireo. Projected onto the zodiac, Albireo stands at 1° Aquarius, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 20 January.
- Is Albireo the brightest star?
- Albireo shines at magnitude 3.18 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Albireo?
- Albireo is approximately 430 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 430 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Albireo?
- Albireo is part of Cygnus.
- Can everyone see Albireo?
- 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 62°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 28°N. It stands highest at midnight in July, so July and August evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 3.18 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
- Is dedicating Albireo an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Albireo 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.
Explore nearby stars
