The AsterNym star registry
Alfirk
Alfirk: the blue star of Cepheus
blue · Cepheus · β Cep
Alfirk is a blue star in the constellation Cepheus, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 3.23 it is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Alfirk 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
Alfirk at a glance
- Constellation
- Cepheus
- Other name
- β Cep
- Catalogue number
- HIP 106032
- Distance
- ≈ 690 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 3.23 naked-eye
- Star type
- B2 III
- Colour
- blue
- Best seen from
- The far northern sky
- Right ascension
- 21h 28m 44s
- Declination
- +70° 33′ 39″
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 Alfirk?
Alfirk is a blue-white giant. 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.
Its colour is not the whole story. A blue-white star still in the steady part of its life would burn for tens 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.
The light you are looking at is old
Alfirk is about 690 light years away, so the light reaching you now set out around 1336. 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 Alfirk mean?
Beta Cephei bore the traditional name Alfirk, derived from the Arabic الفرقة al-firqah "the flock" (of sheep).
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 Alfirk dedication represent?
Alfirk 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 Cepheus in the sky.”
Where can you see Alfirk?
It is a deep-northern star: easy from Europe, North America and northern Asia, but it never rises for observers south of about latitude 19°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 71°N. It stands highest at midnight in August, so August and September evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 3.23 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
Alfirk belongs to Cepheus.
What does Alfirk mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Alfirk, 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, Alfirk stands at 5° Taurus at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 25 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 Alfirk 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 Alfirk →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Alfirk dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Alfirk's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Alfirk keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Alfirk
- What does Alfirk mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Alfirk. Projected onto the zodiac, Alfirk stands at 5° Taurus, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 25 April.
- Is Alfirk the brightest star?
- Alfirk shines at magnitude 3.23 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Alfirk?
- Alfirk is approximately 690 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 690 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Alfirk?
- Alfirk is part of Cepheus.
- Can everyone see Alfirk?
- It is a deep-northern star: easy from Europe, North America and northern Asia, but it never rises for observers south of about latitude 19°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 71°N. It stands highest at midnight in August, so August and September evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 3.23 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
- Is dedicating Alfirk an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Alfirk 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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