Preview. This is a sample dedication, shown so you can see what a dedicated star page looks like.
A dedicated star
Almach
warm orange · Andromeda · γ And
Dedicated to
Maya
by Her sister, June · August 12, 2026
“You were born on the brightest night of my life. Whenever you feel small, remember: there is a star that has carried your name since before you could read it, and it is still up there, still burning, still yours.”
This dedication
- Dedicated to
- Maya
- Dedicated by
- Her sister, June
- Recorded
- August 12, 2026
- Held until
- August 12, 2027
When this dedication ends, Almach becomes available again. Want it? Put the date in your calendar.
Almach at a glance
- Constellation
- Andromeda
- Other name
- γ And
- Catalogue number
- HIP 9640
- Distance
- ≈ 350 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 2.26 naked-eye
- Star type
- K3 IIb
- Colour
- warm orange
- Best seen from
- The Northern Hemisphere and lower southern latitudes
- Right ascension
- 02h 03m 54s
- Declination
- +42° 19′ 47″
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 Almach?
Almach is an orange supergiant. Its surface runs roughly 4,000 to 5,000°C, cool enough that the light carries a visible orange. 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. An orange star still in the steady part of its life would burn for tens of thousands 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 supergiant, which means it has left the stable part of its life and swollen enormously. Put it where the Sun is and its surface would swallow the inner planets. Stars this size do not fade quietly; this one will end as a supernova, and on a human timescale that could be tonight or in a million years.
The light you are looking at is old
The light arriving from Almach tonight left in about 1676, some 350 years ago. Everything that has happened since, every person you have heard of from the last few centuries, happened while it was in transit.
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 Almach mean?
Almach was the traditional name (also spelt as Almaach, Almaack, Almak, Almaak, or Alamak), derived from the Arabic العناق (al-‘anāq), "the caracal" (desert lynx).
In the catalogue of stars in the Calendarium of Al Achsasi al Mouakket, this star was designated الخامس النعامة (Al Khamis al Na'amah), which was translated into Latin as Quinta Struthionum, meaning the fifth ostrich.
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.
Where can you see Almach?
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 48°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 42°N. It stands highest at midnight in October, so October and November evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 2.26 it is an easy naked-eye star from any reasonably dark spot.
Almach belongs to Andromeda.
What does Almach mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Almach, 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, Almach stands at 14° Taurus at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 4 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.
Frequently asked questions about Almach
- What does Almach mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Almach. Projected onto the zodiac, Almach stands at 14° Taurus, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 4 May.
- Is Almach the brightest star?
- Almach shines at magnitude 2.26 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Almach?
- Almach is approximately 350 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 350 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Almach?
- Almach is part of Andromeda.
- Can everyone see Almach?
- 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 48°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 42°N. It stands highest at midnight in October, so October and November evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 2.26 it is an easy naked-eye star from any reasonably dark spot.
- Is dedicating Almach an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Almach 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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