The AsterNym star registry
Alkaid
Alkaid: the blue star of Ursa Major
blue · Ursa Major · η UMa
Alkaid is a blue star in the constellation Ursa Major, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 1.85 it is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Alkaid 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
Alkaid at a glance
- Constellation
- Ursa Major
- Other name
- η UMa
- Catalogue number
- HIP 67301
- Distance
- ≈ 104 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 1.85 naked-eye
- Star type
- B3 V
- Colour
- blue
- Best seen from
- The Northern Hemisphere and lower southern latitudes
- Right ascension
- 13h 47m 32s
- Declination
- +49° 18′ 48″
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 Alkaid?
Alkaid 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 Alkaid left in 1922, 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 Alkaid mean?
It bore the traditional names Alkaid (or Elkeid from the Arabic القايد القائد) and Benetnasch.
Alkaid derives from the Arabic phrase meaning "The leader of the daughters of the bier" (قائد بنات نعش ').
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 Alkaid dedication represent?
Alkaid 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 Alkaid?
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 41°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 49°N. It stands highest at midnight in April, so April and May evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 1.85 it is an easy naked-eye star from any reasonably dark spot.
Alkaid belongs to Ursa Major.
What does Alkaid mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Alkaid, 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, Alkaid stands at 26° Virgo at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 16 September 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 Alkaid 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 Alkaid →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Alkaid dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Alkaid's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Alkaid keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Alkaid
- What does Alkaid mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Alkaid. Projected onto the zodiac, Alkaid stands at 26° Virgo, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 16 September.
- Is Alkaid the brightest star?
- Alkaid shines at magnitude 1.85 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Alkaid?
- Alkaid is approximately 104 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 104 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Alkaid?
- Alkaid is part of Ursa Major.
- Can everyone see Alkaid?
- 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 41°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 49°N. It stands highest at midnight in April, so April and May evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 1.85 it is an easy naked-eye star from any reasonably dark spot.
- Is dedicating Alkaid an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Alkaid 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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