The AsterNym star registry
Alphard
Alphard: the warm orange star of Hydra
warm orange · Hydra · α Hya
Alphard is a warm orange giant, far along its stellar life in the constellation Hydra, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 1.98 it is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Alphard 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
Alphard at a glance
- Constellation
- Hydra
- Other name
- α Hya
- Catalogue number
- HIP 46390
- Distance
- ≈ 177 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 1.98 naked-eye
- Star type
- K3 II-III
- Colour
- warm orange
- Best seen from
- Almost everywhere on Earth
- Right ascension
- 09h 27m 36s
- Declination
- −08° 39′ 31″
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 Alphard?
Alphard is an orange giant. 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 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 arriving from Alphard tonight left in about 1849, some 177 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 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 Alphard mean?
The traditional name Alphard is from the Arabic الفرد (al-fard), "the individual", there being no other bright stars near it.
In the catalogue of stars in the Calendarium of Al Achsasi Al Mouakket, it was designated Soheil al Fard, which was translated into Latin as Soheil Solitarius, meaning the bright solitary one.
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 Alphard dedication represent?
Alphard 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 Hydra in the sky.”
Where can you see Alphard?
It sits 9° south of the celestial equator, so it clears the horizon everywhere short of latitude 81°N, in practice, every inhabited latitude on Earth. It passes directly overhead at latitude 9°S. It stands highest at midnight in February, so February and March evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 1.98 it is an easy naked-eye star from any reasonably dark spot.
Alphard belongs to Hydra, where it is the brightest star.
What does Alphard mean in astrology?
"The solitary one", the Hydra's heart. Robson's tradition gives it Saturn–Venus intensity: strong feeling held alone, and a warning against poisons literal and figurative.
Projected onto the zodiac the way fixed-star astrology reads any star, Alphard stands at 27° Leo at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 16 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 Alphard 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 Alphard →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Alphard dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Alphard's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Alphard keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Alphard
- What does Alphard mean in astrology?
- "The solitary one", the Hydra's heart. Robson's tradition gives it Saturn–Venus intensity: strong feeling held alone, and a warning against poisons literal and figurative. Projected onto the zodiac, Alphard stands at 27° Leo, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 16 August.
- Is Alphard the brightest star?
- Alphard shines at magnitude 1.98 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Alphard?
- Alphard is approximately 177 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 177 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Alphard?
- Alphard is the brightest star in Hydra.
- Can everyone see Alphard?
- It sits 9° south of the celestial equator, so it clears the horizon everywhere short of latitude 81°N, in practice, every inhabited latitude on Earth. It passes directly overhead at latitude 9°S. It stands highest at midnight in February, so February and March evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 1.98 it is an easy naked-eye star from any reasonably dark spot.
- Is dedicating Alphard an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Alphard 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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