The AsterNym star registry
Alhena
Alhena: the white star of Gemini
white · Gemini · γ Gem
Alhena is a white star, burning hotter than our own Sun in the constellation Gemini, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 1.93 it is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Alhena 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
Alhena at a glance
- Constellation
- Gemini
- Other name
- γ Gem
- Catalogue number
- HIP 31681
- Distance
- ≈ 105 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 1.93 naked-eye
- Star type
- A1 IV
- Colour
- white
- Best seen from
- Almost everywhere on Earth
- Right ascension
- 06h 37m 42s
- Declination
- +16° 23′ 57″
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 Alhena?
Alhena is a white subgiant. 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 subgiant, caught in the short crossing between an ordinary life and a giant one. Its core has run out of hydrogen but its outer layers have not finished expanding, and astronomically this stage passes quickly.
The light you are looking at is old
The light you can see from Alhena left in 1921, 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 also one of the brighter stars in the sky, which is why it carries a proper name at all rather than a catalogue number.
What does the name Alhena mean?
The traditional name Alhena is derived from the Arabic الهنعة Al Han'ah, 'the brand' (on the neck of the camel), whilst the alternate name Almeisan is from the Arabic المیسان Al Maisan, 'the shining one.
In the catalogue of stars in the Calendarium of Al Achsasi Al Mouakket, this star was designated Nir al Henat, which was translated into Latin as Prima του al Henat, meaning 'the brightest of Al Henat'.
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 Alhena dedication represent?
Alhena 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 Gemini in the sky.”
Where can you see Alhena?
It sits 16° north of the celestial equator, so it clears the horizon everywhere short of latitude 74°S, in practice, every inhabited latitude on Earth. It passes directly overhead at latitude 16°N. It stands highest at midnight in December, so December and January evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 1.93 it is an easy naked-eye star from any reasonably dark spot.
Alhena belongs to Gemini.
What does Alhena mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Alhena, 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, Alhena stands at 9° Cancer at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 29 June 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 Alhena 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 Alhena →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Alhena dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Alhena's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Alhena keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Alhena
- What does Alhena mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Alhena. Projected onto the zodiac, Alhena stands at 9° Cancer, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 29 June.
- Is Alhena the brightest star?
- Alhena shines at magnitude 1.93 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Alhena?
- Alhena is approximately 105 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 105 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Alhena?
- Alhena is part of Gemini.
- Can everyone see Alhena?
- It sits 16° north of the celestial equator, so it clears the horizon everywhere short of latitude 74°S, in practice, every inhabited latitude on Earth. It passes directly overhead at latitude 16°N. It stands highest at midnight in December, so December and January evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 1.93 it is an easy naked-eye star from any reasonably dark spot.
- Is dedicating Alhena an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Alhena 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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