The AsterNym star registry
Alnair
Alnair: the blue-white star of Grus
blue-white · Grus · α Gru
Alnair is a blue-white star, the colour of the hottest, youngest suns in the constellation Grus, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 1.73 it is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Alnair 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
Alnair at a glance
- Constellation
- Grus
- Other name
- α Gru
- Catalogue number
- HIP 109268
- Distance
- ≈ 101 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 1.73 naked-eye
- Star type
- B6 V
- Colour
- blue-white
- Best seen from
- The Southern Hemisphere and lower northern latitudes
- Right ascension
- 22h 08m 14s
- Declination
- −46° 57′ 40″
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 Alnair?
Alnair 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 Alnair left in 1925, 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 could a Alnair dedication represent?
Alnair 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 Grus in the sky.”
Where can you see Alnair?
It is easy to see from much of the Southern Hemisphere. It can also appear from lower northern latitudes, but it never rises for observers north of about latitude 43°N. It passes directly overhead at latitude 47°S. It stands highest at midnight in August, so August and September evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 1.73 it is an easy naked-eye star from any reasonably dark spot.
Alnair belongs to Grus, where it is the brightest star.
What does Alnair mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Alnair, 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, Alnair stands at 15° Aquarius at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 4 February 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 Alnair 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 Alnair →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Alnair dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Alnair's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Alnair keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Alnair
- What does Alnair mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Alnair. Projected onto the zodiac, Alnair stands at 15° Aquarius, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 4 February.
- Is Alnair the brightest star?
- Alnair shines at magnitude 1.73 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Alnair?
- Alnair is approximately 101 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 101 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Alnair?
- Alnair is the brightest star in Grus.
- Can everyone see Alnair?
- It is easy to see from much of the Southern Hemisphere. It can also appear from lower northern latitudes, but it never rises for observers north of about latitude 43°N. It passes directly overhead at latitude 47°S. It stands highest at midnight in August, so August and September evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 1.73 it is an easy naked-eye star from any reasonably dark spot.
- Is dedicating Alnair an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Alnair 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
