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A dedicated star
Alruba
white · Draco · HR 6618
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, Alruba becomes available again. Want it? Put the date in your calendar.
Alruba at a glance
- Constellation
- Draco
- Other name
- HR 6618
- Catalogue number
- HIP 86782
- Distance
- ≈ 533 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 5.75 naked-eye
- Star type
- A2V
- Colour
- white
- Best seen from
- The Northern Hemisphere and lower southern latitudes
- Right ascension
- 17h 43m 59s
- Declination
- +53° 48′ 06″
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 Alruba?
Alruba is a white main-sequence star. Its surface runs around 7,500 to 10,000°C, hot enough to look white or blue-white to the eye. 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.
These are the classic bright white stars. Sirius and Vega are both this kind, and they are the reason people describe stars as white when most of the galaxy's stars are actually red and too faint to see.
A star of this class gets roughly a thousand million years, a tenth of what the Sun gets.
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.
Alruba barely moves against the background sky, which is mostly a statement about how far away it is. For every practical purpose, including yours, it is fixed.
The light you are looking at is old
Alruba is about 533 light years away, so the light reaching you now set out around 1493. You are not looking at the star as it is. You are looking at the star as it was, and there is no way to see it any other way.
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 sits at the edge of what an unaided eye can do, so finding it is a deliberate act rather than an accident.
Where can you see Alruba?
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 36°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 54°N. It stands highest at midnight in June, so June and July evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 5.75 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
Alruba belongs to Draco.
What does Alruba mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Alruba, 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, Alruba stands at 19° Sagittarius at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 8 December 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 Alruba
- What does Alruba mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Alruba. Projected onto the zodiac, Alruba stands at 19° Sagittarius, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 8 December.
- Is Alruba the brightest star?
- Alruba shines at magnitude 5.75 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Alruba?
- Alruba is approximately 533 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 533 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Alruba?
- Alruba is part of Draco.
- Can everyone see Alruba?
- 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 36°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 54°N. It stands highest at midnight in June, so June and July evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 5.75 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
- Is dedicating Alruba an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Alruba 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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