The AsterNym star registry
Algol
Algol: the blue-white star of Perseus
blue-white · Perseus · β Per
Algol is a blue-white star, the colour of the hottest, youngest suns in the constellation Perseus, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 2.12 it is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Algol 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
Algol at a glance
- Constellation
- Perseus
- Other name
- β Per
- Catalogue number
- HIP 14576
- Distance
- ≈ 90 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 2.12 naked-eye
- Star type
- B8 V
- Colour
- blue-white
- Best seen from
- The Northern Hemisphere and lower southern latitudes
- Right ascension
- 03h 08m 10s
- Declination
- +40° 57′ 20″
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 Algol?
Algol 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.
The light you are looking at is old
The light you can see from Algol left in 1936, which puts it roughly a lifetime ago. Nobody has invented anything since then that the light knows about; it has simply been travelling.
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 Algol mean?
The English name "Demon Star" derives from the same Arabic name.
A Latin name for Algol from the 16th century was Caput Larvae or "the Spectre's Head"'.
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 Algol dedication represent?
Algol 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 Perseus in the sky.”
Where can you see Algol?
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 49°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 41°N. It stands highest at midnight in November, so November and December evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 2.12 it is an easy naked-eye star from any reasonably dark spot.
Algol belongs to Perseus.
What does Algol mean in astrology?
The "Demon's head": Medusa's eye in Perseus's hand, and the most feared star of the tradition, associated with losing one's head literally or figuratively. Modern astrologers tend to read it less luridly: raw female power, and intensity that must be handled consciously. It is also a real eclipsing binary that visibly "blinks" every 2.87 days · the ancients noticed.
Projected onto the zodiac the way fixed-star astrology reads any star, Algol stands at 26° Taurus at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 16 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.
Dedicate Algol 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 Algol →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Algol dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Algol's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Algol keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Algol
- What does Algol mean in astrology?
- The "Demon's head": Medusa's eye in Perseus's hand, and the most feared star of the tradition, associated with losing one's head literally or figuratively. Modern astrologers tend to read it less luridly: raw female power, and intensity that must be handled consciously. It is also a real eclipsing binary that visibly "blinks" every 2.87 days · the ancients noticed. Projected onto the zodiac, Algol stands at 26° Taurus, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 16 May.
- Is Algol the brightest star?
- Algol shines at magnitude 2.12 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Algol?
- Algol is approximately 90 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 90 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Algol?
- Algol is part of Perseus.
- Can everyone see Algol?
- 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 49°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 41°N. It stands highest at midnight in November, so November and December evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 2.12 it is an easy naked-eye star from any reasonably dark spot.
- Is dedicating Algol an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Algol 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
