The AsterNym star registry
Alsafi
Alsafi: the yellow star of Draco
yellow · Draco · σ Dra
Alsafi is a yellow star in the constellation Draco, one of the stars with a proper name recognised in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. At magnitude 4.68 it is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky.
Most stars in the sky are anonymous points of light. Alsafi 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
Alsafi at a glance
- Constellation
- Draco
- Other name
- σ Dra
- Catalogue number
- HIP 96100
- Distance
- ≈ 18.8 light-years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 4.68 naked-eye
- Star type
- G9 V
- Colour
- yellow
- Best seen from
- The far northern sky
- Right ascension
- 19h 32m 21s
- Declination
- +69° 39′ 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 Alsafi?
Alsafi is a yellow main-sequence star. Its surface runs about 5,500°C, near enough the Sun's own surface temperature. 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.
This is the Sun's class. Looking at a star like this is the closest you get to seeing what our own star looks like from outside, which is a stranger thought than it first sounds.
A star of this class gets around ten thousand million years, and the Sun is halfway through its own.
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.
Alsafi is one of the fastest-moving stars in the sky. It shifts about 184 arcseconds every century, which sounds tiny and is not: over a human lifetime it visibly changes position against the stars behind it. The constellations are not fixed, they are just slow, and this one is in a hurry.
The light you are looking at is old
Light travels fast but not instantly, so what reaches your eye from Alsafi tonight set out in 2007. That is inside a single lifetime. Someone alive now was already alive when this particular light left.
Distance is also the honest limit of what a star can be to you. It is a real object, unimaginably large, and it does not know you exist. What it can be is a fixed point you agreed to attach a meaning to, which is the oldest use people have ever had for the sky.
It is comfortably visible without equipment on a decent night.
What does the name Alsafi mean?
It bore the traditional name Alsafi, derived from the Arabic Athāfi, itself erroneously transcribed from the Arabic plural Athāfiyy, by which the Bedouin nomads designated the tripods of their open-air kitchens.
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 Alsafi dedication represent?
Alsafi 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 Draco in the sky.”
Where can you see Alsafi?
It is a deep-northern star: easy from Europe, North America and northern Asia, but it never rises for observers south of about latitude 20°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 70°N. It stands highest at midnight in July, so July and August evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 4.68 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
Alsafi belongs to Draco.
What does Alsafi mean in astrology?
The classical fixed-star tradition: Ptolemy, the medieval Behenian lists, Robson’s 1923 compilation. Is silent on Alsafi, 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, Alsafi stands at 0° Taurus at the J2000 epoch, and the Sun passes that degree around 20 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 Alsafi 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 Alsafi →Real star · your message · a page to share
Your Alsafi dedication includes
- Your chosen dedication name
- Your personal message
- Alsafi's real astronomical coordinates
- A shareable dedication page
- Its location on the AsterNym Galaxy Map
- An optional printable certificate and gift presentation
Alsafi keeps its established astronomical name. Your dedication is a personal commemorative record within the AsterNym registry.
Frequently asked questions about Alsafi
- What does Alsafi mean in astrology?
- The classical fixed-star tradition has no documented meaning for Alsafi. Projected onto the zodiac, Alsafi stands at 0° Taurus, and the Sun passes that degree each year around 20 April.
- Is Alsafi the brightest star?
- Alsafi shines at magnitude 4.68 · visible to the naked eye on a clear night, one of the few thousand stars with an officially recognised name.
- How far away is Alsafi?
- Alsafi is approximately 18.8 light-years from Earth. The light reaching us tonight began its journey around 19 years ago.
- Which constellation contains Alsafi?
- Alsafi is part of Draco.
- Can everyone see Alsafi?
- It is a deep-northern star: easy from Europe, North America and northern Asia, but it never rises for observers south of about latitude 20°S. It passes directly overhead at latitude 70°N. It stands highest at midnight in July, so July and August evenings are the best time to look. At magnitude 4.68 it is a naked-eye star only under a dark sky, binoculars make it certain.
- Is dedicating Alsafi an official astronomical renaming?
- No. Alsafi 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
