The AsterNym star registry
Alioth
Alioth: the white star of Ursa Major
white · Ursa Major · ε UMa
Alioth is a white star, burning hotter than our own Sun in the constellation Ursa Major, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 1.76 it is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Alioth 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
Alioth at a glance
- Constellation
- Ursa Major
- Other name
- ε UMa
- Catalogue number
- HIP 62956
- Distance
- ≈ 81 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 1.76 naked-eye
- Star type
- A1 III-IV
- Colour
- white
- Best seen from
- The Northern Hemisphere and lower southern latitudes
- Right ascension
- 12h 54m 02s
- Declination
- +55° 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 Alioth?
Alioth is a white giant. 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.
Its colour is not the whole story. A white star still in the steady part of its life would burn for about a thousand million 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
The light you can see from Alioth left in 1945, 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 Alioth mean?
The traditional name Alioth comes from the Arabic عليات الحمال alyat al-hamal ("the sheep's fat tail")'.
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 Alioth dedication represent?
Alioth 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 Ursa Major in the sky.”
Where can you see Alioth?
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 34°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 56°N. It stands highest at midnight in April, so April and May evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 1.76 it is an easy naked-eye star from any reasonably dark spot.
Alioth belongs to Ursa Major, where it is the brightest star.
What does Alioth mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Alioth, 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, Alioth stands at 8° Virgo at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 28 August 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 Alioth 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 Alioth →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Alioth dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Alioth's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Alioth keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Alioth
- What does Alioth mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Alioth. Projected onto the zodiac, Alioth stands at 8° Virgo, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 28 August.
- Is Alioth the brightest star?
- Alioth shines at magnitude 1.76 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Alioth?
- Alioth is approximately 81 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 81 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Alioth?
- Alioth is the brightest star in Ursa Major.
- Can everyone see Alioth?
- 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 34°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 56°N. It stands highest at midnight in April, so April and May evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 1.76 it is an easy naked-eye star from any reasonably dark spot.
- Is dedicating Alioth an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Alioth 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
