Preview. This is a sample dedication, shown so you can see what a dedicated star page looks like.
A dedicated star
Áldu
blue-white · Perseus · ϵ Per
Dedicated to
Maya
by Her sister, June · August 12, 2026
“You were born on the brightest night of my life. Whenever you feel small, remember: there is a star that has carried your name since before you could read it, and it is still up there, still burning, still yours.”
This dedication
- Dedicated to
- Maya
- Dedicated by
- Her sister, June
- Recorded
- August 12, 2026
- Held until
- August 12, 2027
When this dedication ends, Áldu becomes available again. Want it? Put the date in your calendar.
Áldu at a glance
- Constellation
- Perseus
- Other name
- ϵ Per
- Catalogue number
- HIP 18532
- Distance
- ≈ 638 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 2.89 naked-eye
- Star type
- B0.5V
- Colour
- blue-white
- Best seen from
- The Northern Hemisphere and lower southern latitudes
- Right ascension
- 03h 57m 51s
- Declination
- +40° 00′ 37″
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 Áldu?
Áldu 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.
Áldu barely moves against the background sky, which is mostly a statement about how far away it is. For every practical purpose, including yours, it is fixed.
The light you are looking at is old
Áldu is about 638 light years away, so the light reaching you now set out around 1388. 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.
Where can you see Áldu?
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 50°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 40°N. It stands highest at midnight in November, so November and December evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 2.89 it is an easy naked-eye star from any reasonably dark spot.
Áldu belongs to Perseus.
What does Áldu mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Áldu, 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, Áldu stands at 5° Gemini at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 26 May 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.
Frequently asked questions about Áldu
- What does Áldu mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Áldu. Projected onto the zodiac, Áldu stands at 5° Gemini, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 26 May.
- Is Áldu the brightest star?
- Áldu shines at magnitude 2.89 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Áldu?
- Áldu is approximately 638 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 638 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Áldu?
- Áldu is part of Perseus.
- Can everyone see Áldu?
- 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 50°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 40°N. It stands highest at midnight in November, so November and December evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 2.89 it is an easy naked-eye star from any reasonably dark spot.
- Is dedicating Áldu an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Áldu 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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