The AsterNym star registry
Alpheratz
Alpheratz: the blue-white star of Andromeda
blue-white · Andromeda · α And
Alpheratz is a blue-white star, the colour of the hottest, youngest suns in the constellation Andromeda, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 2.07 it is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Alpheratz 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
Alpheratz at a glance
- Constellation
- Andromeda
- Other name
- α And
- Catalogue number
- HIP 677
- Distance
- ≈ 97 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 2.07 naked-eye
- Star type
- B8 IV-V
- Colour
- blue-white
- Best seen from
- The Northern Hemisphere and lower southern latitudes
- Right ascension
- 00h 08m 23s
- Declination
- +29° 05′ 25″
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 Alpheratz?
Alpheratz is a blue-white subgiant. 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 subgiant, caught in the short crossing between an ordinary life and a giant one. Its core has run out of hydrogen but its outer layers have not finished expanding, and astronomically this stage passes quickly.
The light you are looking at is old
The light you can see from Alpheratz left in 1929, 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 comfortably visible without equipment on a decent night.
What could a Alpheratz dedication represent?
Alpheratz 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 Andromeda in the sky.”
Where can you see Alpheratz?
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 61°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 29°N. It stands highest at midnight in September, so September and October evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 2.07 it is an easy naked-eye star from any reasonably dark spot.
Alpheratz belongs to Andromeda, where it is the brightest star.
What does Alpheratz mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Alpheratz, 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, Alpheratz stands at 14° Aries at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 4 April 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 Alpheratz 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 Alpheratz →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Alpheratz dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Alpheratz's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Alpheratz keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Alpheratz
- What does Alpheratz mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Alpheratz. Projected onto the zodiac, Alpheratz stands at 14° Aries, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 4 April.
- Is Alpheratz the brightest star?
- Alpheratz shines at magnitude 2.07 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Alpheratz?
- Alpheratz is approximately 97 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 97 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Alpheratz?
- Alpheratz is the brightest star in Andromeda.
- Can everyone see Alpheratz?
- 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 61°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 29°N. It stands highest at midnight in September, so September and October evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 2.07 it is an easy naked-eye star from any reasonably dark spot.
- Is dedicating Alpheratz an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Alpheratz 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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